HHHH 

■ M 



mam 

SH ■■ 




£# 






■ ■ ■ 



■ 



UV.*.. 



■ "■; 
HMm 

'JO 



KftV 












I 

HMMKflKBfifltJBi 
^ ll 



4$ 











■ 



Hi 




p/cv^J^fflJt^^, 



W& /f{>8- 



PRACTICAL TREATISE 



HIVE AND HONEY-BEE, 



JiA 



rf/n 



ANGSTKOTH ; 



AN INTBODUCTION, BY BEV. EOBEET BAIED, D. D. 




THfRD EDITION, 
WtTlBKD, AND nXUSTKATED WITH SEVENTY-SEVEN ENGEA VINOS. 



NEW YOKE: 

C. M. SAXTON, 25 PARK ROW, 

1863. 



5f&2 3 



yi& 



Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 185v, 

By L. L. LANGSTKOTH, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Southern District of New York. 



B % tfC. Pab. Lib 



John A. Douglas & Co., 

Stereotyp&r^. 

183 William Street, N. Y. 



INTRODUCTION. 



I am happy to learn from my friend Mr. Langstroth, 
that a new edition of his work on the Hive and Honey- 
Bee is called for ; I consider it by far the most valuable 
treatise on these subjects, which has come under my 
notice. Some years before it was published, I became 
acquainted with the main characteristics of his system of 
Bee-culture, and even then, I believed it to be incompar- 
ably superior to all others of which I had either read or 
heard. This conviction has been amply strengthened by 
the testimony of others, as well as by results which have 
come under my own observations 

In my early life I had no inconsiderable experience in 

the management of bees, and I am bold to say that the 

hive which Mr. Lantgstroth has invented, is in all respects 

greatly superior to any which I have ever seen, either in 

this or foreign countries. Indeed, I do not believe that 

any one who takes an intelligent interest in the rearing of 

bees, can for a moment hesitate to use it ; or, rather, can 

be induced to use any other, when he becomes acquainted 

with its nature and merits. 

At length the true secret has been discovered, of 

iii 



IV INTRODUCTION. 

making these most industrious, interesting, and useful of 
insect-communities, work in habitations both comfortable 
to themselves and wonderfully convenient for their aggre- 
gation, division, and rapid increase ; and all this without 
diminishing their productive labor, or resorting to the 
cruel measure of destroying them. 

Mr. Langstroth teaches us in his book, how bees can 
be taken care of without great labor, and without the risk 
of suffering from the weapon which the Creator has given 
them for self-defence. Even a delicate lady need not 
fear to undertake the task of cultivating this fascinating 
branch of Rural Economy. Nothing is easier for any 
family that resides in a favorable situation, than to have 
a number of colonies, and this at but little expense. I 
sincerely hope that many will avail themselves of the 
facilities now placed before them for prosecuting this 
easy branch of industry, not only for the sake of the 
large profit in proportion to its expense, which it may be 
made to yield, but also for the Substantial pleasure which 
they may find in observing the habits of these wonderful 
little creatures. How remarkably does their entire econ- 
omy illustrate the wisdom and skill of the Great Author 
of all things. 

I cannot but believe that many Ministers of the 'Gospel, 
residing in rural districts, will accept of Mr. Langstroth'^ 
generous offer to give them the free use of his Invention. 
With very little labor or expense, they can derive from 
bee-keeping considerable profit, as well as much pleasure 



INTRODUCTION. V 

No industrial or material employment can be more inno* 
cent, or less inconsistent with their proper work. 

There are few portions of our country which are not 
admirably adapted to the culture of the Honey-Bee. The 
wealth of the nation might be increased by millions of 
dollars, if every family favorably situated for bee-keeping . 
would keep a few hives. No other branch of industry 
can be named, in which there need be so little loss on 
the material that is employed, or which so completely 
derives its profits from the vast and exhaustless domains 
of Nature. 

I trust that Mr. Langsteoth's labors will contribute 
greatly to promote a department of Rural Economy, which 
in this country has hitherto received so little scientific 
attention. He well deserves the name of Benefactor ; 
infinitely more so than many who in all countries and in 
all ages have received that honorable title. Not many 
years will pass away without seeing his important inven- 
tion brought into extensive use, both in the Old and New 
World. Its great merits need only to be known ; and 
this, Time will certainly bring about. 

ROBERT BAIRD. 



PREFACE. 



Encouraged by the favor with which the former edi. 
dons of this work have been received, I submit to the 
public a Revised Edition, illustrated by additional wood- 
cuts, and containing my latest discoveries and improve- 
ments. The information which it presents, is adapted not 
only to those who use the Movable-Comb Hive, but to all 
who aim at profitable bee-keeping, with any hive, or on 
any system of management. 

Debarred, to a great extent, by ill-health, from the ap- 
propriate duties of my profession, and compelled to seek 
an employment calling me as much as possible into the 
open air, I cherish the hope that my labors in an impor- 
tant department of Rural Economy, may prove service- 
able to the community. Bee-keeping is regarded in 
Europe as an intellectual pursuit, and no one who studies 
the wonderful habits of this useful insect, will ever find 
the materials for new observations exhausted. The Cre- 
ator has stamped the seal of his Infinity on all his works, 
so that it is impossible, even in the minutest, " by search- 
ing to find out the Almighty to perfection." In none 

vii 



Vlll PREFACE. 

of them, however, has he displayed himself more clearly 
than in the economy of the Honey-Bee : 

" What well-appointed commonwealths ! where each 
Adds to the stock of happiness for all ; 
Wisdom's own forums ! whose professors teach 
Eloquent lessons in their vaulted hall ! 
Galleries of art ! and schools of industry I 
Stores of rich fragrance ! Orchestras of song ! 
What marvellous seats of hidden alchemy ! 
How oft, when wandering far and erring long, 
Man might learn truth and virtue from the BEE ! 

BOWRING. 

The attention of Ministers of the Gospel is particularly 
invited to this branch of Natural History. An intimate 
acquaintance with the wonders of the Bee-Hive, while 
beneficial to them in many ^vays, might lead them, in 
their preaching, to imitate more closely the example of 
Him who illustrated his teachings by " the birds of the 
air, and flie lilies of the field," as well as the common 
walks of life, and the busy pursuits of men. 

It affords me sincere pleasure to acknowledge my obli- 
gations to Mr. Samuel Wagner, of York, Pennsylvania, 
for material assistance in the preparation of this Treatise. 
To his extensive and accurate acquaintance with Bee- 
keeping in Germany, my readers will find themselves 
indebted for much exceedingly valuable information. 

L. L. LANGSTROTH. 
Oxford, Butler County, Ohio, March, 1859. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



pass 

List of Plates and Explanation of Wood-Cuts Illustrating the 

Natural History of Bees 11 

Chapter. 

I. Facts connected with the invention of the Movable-Comb 

Bee-Hive 13 

II. The Honey-Bee capable of being tamed 24 

III. The Queen, or Mother-Bee. — The Drones. — The Workers. 

— Facts in their Natural History 29 

IY. Comb 69 

V. Propolis 76 

VI. Pollen, or " Bee Bread." 80 

VII. Ventilation of the Bee-Hive 88 

VIII. Requisites of a Complete Hive 95 

IX. Natural Swarming, and Hiving of Swarms 109 

X. Artificial Swarming 143 

XI. Loss of the Queen 213 

XII. The Bee-Moth, and other Enemies of Bees. — Diseases of 

Bees 228 

XIII. Robbing, and how Prevented 261 

XIV. Directions for Feeding Bees 267 

XV. The Apiary. — Procuring Bees to Stock it. — Transferring 

Bees from Common to Movable-Comb Hives 279 

XVI. Honey 285 

XVII. Bee-Pasturage.— Over-Stocking 292 

ix 



X TABLE OF CONTENTS. 

Chapter. page. 

XVIII. The Anger of Bees.— Remedies for their Stings 308 

XIX. The Italian Honey-Bee 318 

XX. Size, Shape, and Materials for Hives. — Observing-Hives. 829 

XXL Wintering Bees 335 

XXII. Bee-Keeper's Calendar. — Bee-Keeper's Axioms 362 

Explanation of Wood-Cuts of Movable-Comb Hives, with Bills of 

Stock for making them 37 i 

Copious Alphabetical Index 385 



LIST OF PLATE 



PAGE. 

Frontispiece 

Movable-Comb Hive, with full glass 

arrangement 13 

Plate 1 20 

j " II 24 

" III 28 

f " IV 36 

1 " V 44 

* " VI 48 

V " VII 68 

* w VIII 72 

J " IX 88 

V tt X..... 96 



PAGE. 

... 120 
... 128 
... 144 
.. 168 
,.. 192 
216 



Plate XI 

J " XII 

V ■ XIII 

' u XIV 

v" XV 

y " XVI 

■J" XVII 240 

Y" XVIII 264 

'• " XIX 288 

*'" XX 311 

/" XXI 350 

i u XXII 360 

*" XXIII 368 



EXPLANATION OF PLATES. 



PLATES I. to XI. inclusive, show the various styles of Movable-Comb Hives, and 

the Implements used in the Apiary. For explanation of these plates, see 

p. 3T1. 
TPLATE XII.— Figs. 31, 32.— Queen-Bee, of magnified and natural size. See p. 30. 
Figs. 33, 34. — Drone, of magnified and natural size. See p. 49. 
Figs. 35, 36. — Worker, of magnified and natural size. See p. 54 
These Illustrations were copied (with some alterations) from Bagster, 
PLATE XIII.— Fig. 37.— Scales of Wax, highly magnified. See p. 69. 
Fig. 38. — Abdomen of a Worker-Bee, magnified, and showing the exuding scales 

of wax. See p. 69. 
Fig. 39. — Section of a Cell, magnified, and showing the usual position of the egg. 

See p. 44. 
Fig. 40. — Larvae of Bees, in various stages of development. See p. 44. 
Fig 41. — Section of a Cell, magnified, and showing Larva. See p. 44, 
Fig 42, — Worker-Larva, fully grown, and ready to spin its Cocoon. See p. 45. 
Fig. 43 —Worker-Nymph. See p. 45. 
Fig. 49. — A Queen-Cell of the natural size. See p. 62. 
Fig. 50. — A Queen- Cell cut open, to show the unhatched queen. See p. 62. 
Fig. 44.— Eggs of the Bee-Moth, of natural and magnified size. See p. 234. 
Fig. 45. — Larvae of the Bee-Moth, fully grown. See p. 281. 

xi 



Xll EXPLANATION OF PLATES. 

Fig. 46.— Female Bee-Moth. See p. 229. 

Fig. 59.— Female Bee-Moth, with Ovipositor extruded, and eggs passing through 

it See p. 230. 
Fig. 60.— Male Bee-Moth. See p. 229. 
Fig. 61.— Small Male Bee-Moth. See p. 229. 
Fig. 62. — Head of Mexican Honey-Hornet, magnified. See p. 87. 
Fig. 63. — Head of Honey-Bee, magnified. See p. 8T. 

Figs. 64, 65. — Jaws of Honey-Hornet and Honey-Bee, magnified. See p. 87. 
Some of these Illustrations were taken from Swamnierdam, Reaumur, and 
Huber. 
PLATE XIV — For an explanation of this plate, which represents the different 

kinds of Cells in the Honey-Comb, see p. 66. 
PLATE XV.— For an explanation of Fig. 48, which represents Worker and Drone- 
Comb, of natural size, see p. 74. 
Fig. 5S. — A Group of Queen Cells, drawn from a specimen found in the Author's 
hive. See p. 191. 
PLATE XVI— Fig. 51.— Proboscis of a Worker-Bee, highly magnified. See p. 56. 
Fig. 63, Plate XIII., shows the Proboscis attached to the head. 
Fig. 52. — Abdomen of a Worker-Bee, magnified. 
PLATE XVII— Fig. 53.— Sting of a Worker, highly magnified. See p. 56. 
Fig. 54. — Honey-sac, Intestines, Stomach, and Eectum of a Worker-Bee. See 
p. 56. 
PLATE XVIII.— For an explanation of this plate, which represents the Ovaries 

(and adjacent parts) of a Queen-Bee, see p. 85. 
PLATE XIX.— Fig. 56.— Cocoons spun by Larva of the Bee-Moth. See p. 238. 
PLATE XX.— Fig. 57.— Mass of Webs, Cocoons, and Excrements left in a Hive 
destroyed by the Larvae of the Bee-Moth. See p. 235. 

PLATE XXL— Figs. 66, 67, 6S, 69, and 70.— German method of Wintering Bees 
See p. 84S. 

PLATE XXII.— Fig. 71 is the Frontispiece to the First Edition. See p. 331. 
PLATE XXIII. — Shows the position in which a Frame is held when taken from 
the Movable-Comb Hive. — See p. 1T1. 






1 




Movable Comb Hive, with full Glass Arrangement. 



THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 



CHAPTER I. 

FACTS CONNECTED WITH THE INVENTION OF THE MOVABLE- 
COMB BEE-HIVE. 

Practical bee-keeping in this country is in a very 
depressed condition, being entirely neglected by the mass 
of those most favorably situated for its pursuit. Notwith- 
standing the numerous hives which have been introduced, 
the ravages of the bee-moth have increased, and success 
is becoming more and more precarious. While multi- 
tudes have abandoned the pursuit in disgust, many even 
of the most experienced are beginning to suspect that all 
the so called "Improved Hives" are delusions or impos- 
tures ; and that they must return to the simple box or 
hollow log, and " take up " their bees with sulphur in the 
old-fashioned way. 

In the present state of public opinion, it requires no 
little confidence to introduce another patent hive, and a 
new system of management ; but believing that a new 
era in bee-keeping has arrived, I invite the attention of 
Apiarians to the perusal of this Manual, trusting that it 
will convince them that there is a better way than any 
with which they have yet become acquainted. They will 
here find a clear explanation of many hitherto mysterious 
13 



14 THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 

points in the physiology of the honey-bee, together with 
much valuable information never before communicated to 
the public. 

It is now more than twenty years since I turned my 
attention to the keeping of bees. The state of my health 
of late years having compelled me to live much in the 
open air, I have devoted a large portion of my time to a 
minute investigation of their habits, as well as to a series 
of careful experiments in the construction and manage- 
ment of hives. 

Very early in my Apiarian studies I constructed a hive 
on the plan of the celebrated Huber; and by verifying 
some of his most valuable discoveries became convinced 
that the prejudices existing against him were entirely 
unfounded. Believing that his discoveries laid the founda- 
tion for a more profitable system of bee-keeping, I began 
tc experiment with hives of various construction. 

Though the result of these investigations fell far short 
ot my expectations, some of these hives now contain 
vigorous stocks fourteen years old, which without feeding 
have endured all the vicissitudes of some of the worst 
seasons ever known for bees. 

While I felt confident that m^ hive possessed valuable 
peculiarities, I still found myself unable to remedy many 
ol the perplexing casualties to which bee-keeping is liable ; 
and became convinced that no hive could do this, unless 
it gave the complete control of the combs, so that any or 
all of them might be removed at pleasure. The use of the 
Ruber hive had satisfied me, that with proper precautions 
the combs might be removed without enraging the bees, 
and that these insects were capable of being tamed to a 
surprising degree. Without a knowledge of these facts, 
I should have regarded a hive permitting the removal of 
the combs, as quite too dangerous for practical use. At 



MOVABLE-COMB HIVE. 15 

first, I used movable slats or bars placed on rabbets in 
the front and back of the hive. The bees began their 
combs upon these bars, and then fastened them to the 
sides of the hive. By severing these attachments, the 
combs could be removed adhering to the bars.* There was 
nothing new in the use of such bars — the invention being- 
probably a hundred years old — and the chief peculiarity 
in my hive was the facility with which they could be 
removed without enraging the bees, and their combina- 
tion with my improved mode of obtaining the surplus 
honey. 

With hives of this construction, I experimented on a 
larger scale than ever, and soon arrived at very important 
results. I could dispense entirely with natural swarming, 
and yet multiply colonies with greater rapidity and cer- 
tainty than by the common methods. All feeble colonies 
could be strengthened, and those wmich had lost their 
queen furnished with the means of obtaining another. If 
I suspected that any thing was wrong with a hive, I could 
quickly ascertain its true condition, and apply the proper 
remedies. In short, I felt satisfied that bee-keeping could 
be made highly profitable, and as mnch a matter of cer- 
tainty, as most branches of rural economy. 

One thing, however, was still wanting. The cutting of 
the combs from their attachments to the sides of the hive, 
was attended with much loss of time both to myself and 
the bees. This led me to invent a method by which the 
combs were attached to movable frames, so suspended 
in the hives as to touch neither the top, bottom, nor sides. 
By this device the combs could be removed at pleasure, 
without any cutting, and speedily transferred to another 
hive. After experimenting largely with hives of this con- 
struction, I find that they fully answer the ends proposed 
in their invention. 



16 THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 

In the Summer of 1851 I ascertained that bees could 
be made to work in glass hives, exposed to the full light 
of day. This discovery procured me the pleasure of an 
acquaintance with Rev. Dr. Berg, then pastor of a 
Reformed Dutch Church, in Philadelphia. From him I 
first learned that a Prussian clergyman of the name of 
Dzierzon,* was attracting the attention of crowned heads 
by his discoveries in the management of bees. Before he 
communicated to me the particulars of these discoveries, 
I explained to Dr. Berg my own system and showed him 
my hive. He expressed great astonishment at the won- 
derful similarity in our methods of management, neither 
of us having any knowledge of the labors of the other. 

Our hives he found to differ in some very important 
respects. In Dzierzon's hive, the combs not being 
attached to moyable frames but to bars, cannot be 
removed without cutting. In my hive, any comb may be 
taken out without removing the others ; whereas in the 
Dzierzon hive, it is often necessary to cut and remove 
many combs to get access to a particular one ; thus if 
the tenth from the end is to be removed, nine must be 
taken out. The German hive does not furnish the surplus 
honey in a form the most salable in our markets, or 
admitting of safe transportation in the comb. Notwith- 
standing these disadvantages, it has achieved a great 
triumph in Germany, and given a new impulse to the 
cultivation of bees. 

The following letter from Samuel Wagner, Esq., Cashier 
of the Bank of York, in York, Pennsylvania, will show the 
results obtained in Germany by the new system of man- 
agement, and his estimate of the superior value of my hive 
to those there in use. 

* Pronounced Tseertsone. 



MOVABLE-COMB HIVE. 17 

"York, Pa., Dec. 24, 1852. 

a Dear Sir :- —The Dzierzon theory and the system of 
bee-management based thereon, were originally promul- 
gated hypothetically in the 'Eichstadt Bienen-zeitung,' 
or Bee-Journal, in 1 845, and at once arrested my attention. 
Subsequently, when in 1848 at the instance of the Prus- 
sian Government, the Rev. Mr. Dzierzon published his 
1 Theory and Practice of Bee Culture,' I imported a copy 
which reached me in 1849, and which I translated prior to 
January, 1850. Before the translation was completed I 
received a visit from my friend the Rev. Dr. Berg, of 
Philadelphia, and hi the course of conversation on bee- 
keeping, mentioned to him the Dzierzon theory and 
system as one which I regarded as new and very superior, 
though I had had no opportunity for testing it practically. 
In February following, when in Philadelphia, I left with 
him the translation in manuscript — up to which period I 
doubt whether any other person in this country had any 
knowledge of the Dzierzon theory ; except to Dr. Berg, I 
had never mentioned it to any one save in very general 
terms. 

"In September 1851, Dr. Berg again visited York, and 
stated to me your investigations, discoveries and inven- 
tions. From the account Dr. Berg gave me, I felt assured 
that you had devised substantially the same system as that 
so successfully pursued by Mr. Dzierzon; but how far 
your hive resembled his I was unable to judge from 
description alone. I inferred, however, several points of 
difference. The coincidence as to system, and the princi- 
ples on which it was evidently founded, struck me as 
exceedingly singular and interesting, because I felt confi- 
dent that you had no more knowledge of Mr. Dzierzon 
and his labors, before Dr. Berg mentioned him and his 
book to you, than Mr. Dzierzon had of you. These cir- 



18 THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 

cumstances made me very anxious to examine your hives, 
and induced me to visit your Apiary in the village x>f 
West Philadelphia, last August. In the absence of the 
keeper I took the liberty to explore the premises 
thoroughly, opening and inspecting a number of the 
hives and noticing the internal arrangement of the parts. 
The result was, that I came away convinced that though 
your system was based on the same principles as Dzierzon's, 
your hive was almost totally different from his both in con- 
struction and arrangement ; and that while the same objects 
substantially are attained by each, your hive is more sim- 
ple, more convenient, and much better adapted for general 
introduction and use, since the mode of using it can be 
more easily taught. Of its ultimate and triumphant 
success I have no doubt. I sincerely believe that when it 
comes under the notice of Mr. Dzierzon, he will himself 
prefer it to his own. It in fact combines all the good 
properties which a hive ought to possess, while it is free 
from the complication, clumsiness, vain whims and deci- 
dedly objectionable features which characterize most of the 
inventions which profess to be at all superior to the simple 
box, or the common chamber hive. 

" You may certainly claim equal credit with Dzierzon 
for originality in observation and discovery in the natural 
history of the honey-bee, and for success in deducing prin- 
ciples and devising a most valuable system of management 
from observed facts. But in invention, as far as neatness, 
compactness, and adaptation of means to ends are con- 
cerned, the sturdy German must yield the palm to you. 

"I send you herewith some interesting statements 
respecting Dzierzon, and the estimate in which his system 
is held in Germany. Very truly yours, 

Samuel Wagner. 

Rev. L. L. Langstroth." 



MOVABLE-COMB HIVE. 

The following are the statements to which Mr. Wagner 
refers : 

" As the best test of the value of Mr. Dzierzon's system 
j3 the results which have been made to flow from it, a 
brief account of its rise and progress may be found 
interesting. In 1835, he commenced bee-keeping in the 
common way with twelve colonies, and after various mis- 
haps which taught him the defects of the common hives 
'and the old mode of management, his stock was so reduced, 
that, in 1838, he had virtually to begin anew. At this 
period he contrived his improved hive, in its ruder form, 
which gave him the command over all the combs, and he 
began to experiment on the theory which observation and 
study had enabled him to devise. Thenceforward his 
progress was as rapid, as his success was complete and 
triumphant. Though he met with frequent reverses, 
about seventy colonies having been stolen from him, sixty 
destroyed by fire, and twenty-four by a flood, yet, in 1846, 
his stock had increased to three hundred and sixty colo- 
nies, and he realized from them that year six thousand 
pounds of honey, besides several hundred weight of wax. 
At the same time, most of the cultivators in his vicinity 
who pursued the common methods, had fewer hives than 
they had when he commenced. 

"In the year 1848, a fatal pestilence, known by the 
name of 'foul brood,' prevailed among his bees, and 
1 destroyed nearly all his colonies before it could be sub- 
dued, only about ten having escaped the malady which 
attacked alike the old stocks and his artificial swarms. 
He estimates his entire loss that year at over five hundred 
colonies. Nevertheless, he succeeded so well in multi- 
plying by artificial swarms, the few that remained healthy, 
that, in the Fall of 1851, his stock consisted of nearly four 



20 THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. ^ 

hundred colonies. He must therefore have multiplied 
his stocks more than three-fold each year. 

"The highly prosperous condition of his colonies is 
attested by the Report of the Secretary of the Annual 
Apiarian Convention, which met in his vicinity last Spring. 
This Convention, the fourth which has been held, con- 
sisted of one hundred and twelve experienced and enthu- 
siastic bee-keepers from various districts of Germany and 
neighboring countries, and among them were some who, 
when they assembled, w r ere strong opposers of his system. ' 

" They visited and personally examined the Apiaries 
of Mr. Dzierzon. The report speaks in the very highest 
terms of his success, and of the manifest superiority of 
his system of management. He exhibited and satisfac- 
torily explained to his visitors his practice and principles; 
and they remarked with astonishment the singular 
docility of his bees, and the thorough control to w T hich 
they w r ere subjected. After a full detail of the proceed- 
ings, the Secretary goes on to say : 

" 4 Now that I have seen Dzierzon's method practically 
demonstrated, I must admit that it is attended with fewer 
difficulties than I had supposed. With his hive and system 
of management, it would seem that bees become at once 
more docile than they are in other cases. I consider his 
system the simplest and best means of elevating bee-cul- 
ture to a profitable pursuit, and of spreading it far and 
wide over the land ; especially as it is adapted to districts 
in which the bees do not readily and regularly swarm. 
His eminent success in re-establishing his stock after suf- 
fering so heavily from the devastating pestilence ; in short 
the recuperative power of the system, demonstrates con- 
clusively that it furnishes the best, perhaps the only 
means of re-instating bee-culture to a profitable branch oi 
rural economy. 



Fig. 1. 



Plate I. 




Fig. 3. 




MOVABLE-COMB HIVE. 21 

"'Dzierzon modestly disclaimed the idea of having 
attained perfection in his hive. He dwelt rather upon the 
truth and importance of his theory and system of manage- 
ment.' 

" From the Leipzig Illustrated Almanac — Report on 
Agriculture for 1846 : 

" ' Bee-culture is no longer regarded as of any import- 
ance in rural economy.' 

" From the same, for 1851 and 1853 : 

" ' Since Dzierzon's system has been made known, an 
entire revolution in bee-culture has been produced. A 
new era has been created for it, and bee-keepers are turn- 
ing their attention to it with renewed zeal. The merits 
of his discoveries are appreciated by the Government, 
and they recommend his system as worthy the attention 
of the teachers of common schools.' 

" Mr. Dzierzon resides in a poor, sandy district of Lower 
Silesia, which according to the common notions of Apia- 
rians is unfavorable to bee-culture. Yet, despite of this 
and of various other mishaps, he has succeeded in realiz- 
ing nine hundred dollars as the product of his bees in one 
season ! 

" By his mode of management, his bees yield even in 
the poorest years from 10 to 15 per cent, on the capital 
invested; and where the colonies are produced by the 
Apiarian's own skill and labor, they cost him only about 
one-fourth the price at which they are usually valued. In 
ordinary seasons, the profit amounts to from 30 to 50 
per cent., and in very favorable seasons from 80 to 100 
per cent." _ 

In communicating these facts to the public, I take an 
honest pride in establishing my claim to having matured 
by my own independent discoveries, the system of bee* 



22 THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 

culture which has excited so much interest in Germany ; 
I desire also to have the testimony to the merits of my 
hive, of Mr. Wagner, who is extensively known as an able 
German scholar. He has taken all the numbers of the Bee- 
Journal, which has been published monthly for more than 
nineteen years, in Germany; and he is undoubtedly more 
familiar than any other man in this country with the state 
of Apiarian culture abroad. 

I wish, also, to show that the importance which I attach 
to my system of management, is amply justified by the 
success of those who, by the same system, even with infe- 
rior hives, have attained results which to common bee- 
keepers seem almost incredible. Inventors are prone to 
form exaggerated estimates of the value of their labors ; 
and the public has been so often deluded by patent hives 
which have utterly failed to answer their professed objects, 
that they can scarcely be blamed for rejecting every new 
one as unworthy of confidence. 

An American Bee-Journal, properly conducted, would 
have great influence in disseminating information, awaken- 
ing enthusiasm, and guarding the public against the 
miserable impositions to which it has so long been subject- 
ed. Three such journals have been published monthly, in 
Germany; and their circulation has widely disseminated 
those principles which must constitute the foundation ol 
any enlightened and profitable system of bee-culture. 

While many of the principal facts in the physiology of 
the honey-bee were long ago discovered, it has unfortu- 
nately happened that some of the most important have 
been the most widely discredited. In themselves, they 
are so wonderful, and to those who have not witnessed 
them, ofter so incredible, that it is not strange that they 
have been rejected as fanciful conceits or bare-faced 
inventions. 



MOVABLE-COMB HIVE. 23 

For more than half a century, hives have been in use 
containing only one comb inclosed on both sides by glass. 
These hives are darkened by shutters, and when opened 
the queen is as much exposed to observation as the other 
bees. I have discovered that, with proper precautions, 
colonies can be made to work in observing-hives exposed 
continually to the full light of day ; so that observations 
may be made at all times, without interrupting by any 
sudden admission of light the ordinary operations of the 
bees. In such hives, many intelligent persons from vari- 
ous States in the Union have seen the queen-bee deposit- 
ing her eggs in the cells, while surrounded by an affection- 
ate circle of her devoted children. They have also wit- 
; nessed with astonishment and delight, all the mysterious 
i steps in the process of raising queens from eggs, which 
with the ordinary development would have produced 
only the common bees. Often for more than three 
months, there has not been a day in my Apiary in which 
some colonies were not engaged in rearing new queens to 
supply the place of those taken from them ; and I have 
had the pleasure of exhibiting these facts to bee-keepers 
who never before felt willing to credit them. 

As all my hives are made so that each comb can be 
taken out and examined at pleasure, those who use them 
can obtain all the information which they need without 
"taking anything upon trust. May I be permitted to ex- 
press the hope, that the time is now at hand when the 
number of practical observers will be so multiplied, and 
the principles of bee-keeping so thoroughly understood, 
that ignorant and designing men will not be able to im- 
pose their conceits and falsehoods upon the public, by 
depreciating the discoveries of those who have devoted 
years of observation to the advancement of Apiarian 
knowledge ! 



24 THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 

CHAPTER II. 

THE HONEY-BEE CAPABLE OF BEING TAMED. 

If the bee had not such a formidable weapon both of 
offence and defence, multitudes who now fear it might 
easily be induced to enter upon its cultivation. As my 
system of management takes the greatest possible liberties 
with this irascible insect, I deem it important to show in 
the very outset how all necessary operations may be per- 
formed without incurring any serious risk of exciting its 
anger. 

Many persons. have been unable to suppress their aston- 
ishment, as they have seen- me opening hive after hive, 
removing the combs covered with bees, and shaking them 
off in front of the hives ; forming new swarms, exhibiting 
the queen, transferring the bees with all their stores to 
another hive ; and in short, dealing with them as if they 
were as harmless as flies. I have sometimes been asked, if 
the hives I was opening had not been subjected to a long 
course of training ; when they contained swarms *which 
had been brought only the day before to my Apiary. 

1 shall, in this chapter, anticipate some principles in the 
natural history of the bee, to convince my readers that any* 
one favorably situated may enjoy the pleasure and profit 
of a pursuit which has been appropriately styled, " the 
poetry of rural economy," without being made too famil- 
iar with a sharp little weapon which can speedily convert 
all the poetry into very sorry prose. 

It must be manifest to every reflecting mind, that the 
Creator intended the bee, as truly as the horse or the cow, 
for the comfort of man. In the early ages of the world, 



Fig. 4. 




Plate II. 

Fig. 5. 




Fig. 7. 



Fig. 6. 





THE HONEY-BEE CAPABLE OF BEING TAMEL 25 

and indeed until quite modern times, honey was almost 
the only natural sweet ; and the promise of " a land 
flowing with milk and honey " had once a significance 
which it is difficult for us fully to realize. The honey-bee, 
therefore, was created not merely to store up its delicious 
nectar for its own use, but with certain propensities, with- 
out which man could no more subject it to his control, 
than he could make a useful beast of burden of a lion or 
a tiger. 

One of the peculiarities which constitutes the founda- 
tion of my system of management, and indeed of the 
possibility of domesticating at all so irascible an insect, 
has never to my knowledge been clearly stated as a great 
and controlling principle. It may be thus expressed : 

A honey-bee when filled with honey never volunteers an 
attack, but acts solely on the defensive. 

This law of the honeyed tribe is so universal, that a stone 
might as soon be expected to rise into the air without 
any propelling power, as a bee well filled with honey to 
oiFer to sting, unless crushed or injured by some direct 
assault. The man who first attempted to hive a swarm 
of bees, must have been agreeably surprised at the ease 
with which he was able to accomplish the feat ; for it is 
wisely ordered that bees, when intending to swarm, 
should fill their honey-bags to their utmost capacity. 
They are thus so peaceful that they can easily be secured 
by man, besides having materials for commencing opera- 
tions immediately in their new habitation, and being in 
no danger of starving if several stormy days should fol- 
low their emigration. 

Bees issue from their hives in the most peaceable mood 

imaginable ; and unless abused allow themselves to be 

treated with great familiarity. The hiving of them 

might always be conducted without risk, if there were 

2 



26 THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 

not occasionally some improvident or unfortunate ones, 
who, coming forth without the soothing supply, are filled 
instead with the bitterest hate against any one daring to 
meddle with them. Such thriftless radicals are always to 
be dreaded, for they must vent their spleen on something, 
even though they perish in the act. 

If a whole colony on sallying forth possessed such a 
ferocious spirit, no one could hive them unless clad in a 
coat of mail, bee-proof; and not even then, until all the 
windows of his house were closed, his domestic animals 
bestowed in some place of safety, and sentinels posted at 
suitable stations to warn all comers to keep at a safe dis- 
tance. In short, if the propensity to be exceedingly 
good-natured after a hearty meal had not been given to 
the bee, it could never have been domesticated,. and our 
honey would still be procured from the clefts of rocks or 
the hollows of trees. 

A second peculiarity in the nature of the bee, of which 
we may avail ourselves with great success, may be thus 
stated : 

Bees cannot under any circumstances resist the temp- 
tation to Jill themselves with liquid sweets. 

It would be quite as difficult for them to do this, as for 
an inveterate miser to despise a golden shower of double 
eagles falling at his feet and soliciting his appropriation. 
If, then, when we wish to perform any operation which 
might provoke them, we can contrive to call their- atten- 
tion to a treat of flowing sweets, we may be sure that 
under its genial influence they will allow us to do what 
we please, so long as we do not hurt them. 

Special care should be used not to handle them rough- 
ly, for they will never allow themselves to be pinched or 
hurt without thrusting out their sting to resent the in- 
dignity. If, as soon as a hive is opened, the exposed 



THE HONEY-BEE CAPABLE OF BEING TAMED. 27 

bees are gently sprinkled with water sweetened with 
sugar, they will help themselves with great eagerness, 
and in a few moments will be perfectly under control. 
The truth is, that bees thus managed are always glad to 
see visitors, for they expect at every call to receive an 
acceptable peace-offering. The greatest objection to the 
use of sweetened water is, the greediness of bees from 
other hives, who, when there is any scarcity of honey in 
the fields, will often surround the Apiarian as soon as he 
presents himself with his watering-pot, and attempt to 
force their w^ay into any hive he may open, to steal if 
possible a portion of its treasures. 

A third peculiarity in the nature of bees gives an al- 
most unlimited control over them, and may be expressed 
as follows : 

Bees token frightened immediately begin to fill them- 
selves with honey from their combs. 

If the Apiarian only succeeds* in frightening his little 
subjects, he can make them as peaceable as though they 
were incapable of stinging. By the use of a little smoke 
from decayed wood,* the largest and most fiery colony 
may at once be brought into complete subjection. As 
soon as the smoke is blown among them, they retreat 
from before it, raising a subdued or terrified note ; and, 
seeming to imagine that their honey is to be taken from 
tli em, they cram their honey-bags to their utmost capac- 
ity. They act either as if aware that only what they 
can lodge in this inside pocket is safe, or, as if expecting 
to be driven away from their stores, they are determined 
to start with a full supply of provisions for the way. The 
same result may be obtained by shutting them up in their 

* Such wood is often called spunk, or touch-wood ; it burns without any flame 
until consumed ; and its smoke may easily he directed upon the bees, by the 
breath of the Apiarian. 



28 THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 

hive and drumming upon it for a short time. The vari- 
ous processes, however, for inducing bees to fill them- 
selves with honey, are more fully explained in the chap- 
ter on Artificial Swarming. 

By the methods above described, I can superintend a 
large Apiary, performing every operation necessary for 
pleasure or profit, without as much risk of being stung 
as must frequently be incurred in attempting to manage 
a single hive in the ordinary way. 

Let all your motions about your hives be gentle and 
slow. Accustom your bees to your presence : never 
crush or injure them, or breathe upon them in any ope- 
ration ; acquaint yourself fully with the principles of man- 
agement detailed in this treatise, and you will find that 
you have little more reason to dread the sting of a bee, 
than the horns of a favorite cow, or the heels of your 
faithful horse. 

Equipped with a bee-hat (PI. XL, Figs. 25, 27) and 
india-rubber gloves, even the most timid, by availing 
themselves of these principles, may open my hives and 
deal with their bees with a freedom astonishing to many 
of the oldest cultivators on the common plan : for in the 
management of the most extensive Apiary, no operation 
will ever be necessary, which, by exasperating a whole 
colony, impels them to assail with almost irresistible fury 
the person of the bee-keeper. 



Plate III. 



Fig. 9. 




Fig. 10. 




NATURAL HISTORY OF THE HONEY-BEE. 29 



CHAPTER III. 

THE QUEEN, OR MOTHER-BEE ; THE DRONES ; THE WORKERS ; 
FACTS IN THEIR NATURAL HISTORY. 

Honey-Bees can flourish only when associated in large 
numbers, as in a colony. In a solitary state, a single bee 
is almost as helpless as a new-born child, being paralyzed 
by the chill of a cool Summer night. 

If a strong colony preparing to swarm is examined, 
three kinds of bees will be found in the hive. 

1st, One bee of peculiar shape, commonly called the 
Queen-J3ee. 

2d, Some hundreds and often thousands of large bees, 
called Drones. 

3d, Many thousands of a smaller kind, called Workers, 
or common bees, such as are seen on the blossoms. Many 
of the cells will be found to contain honey and bee- 
bread ; and vast numbers of eggs and immature workers 
and drones. A few cells of unusual size are devoted to 
the rearing of young queens. On Plate XII., the queen, 
drone, and worker are represented as magnified, and also 
of the natural size. 

The" queen-bee is the only perfect female in the hive, 
and all the eggs are laid by her. The drones are the 
males, and the workers, females whose ovaries, or " egg- 
bags," are so imperfectly developed that they are incapa- 
ble of breeding; and which retain the instinct of females, 
only so far as to take care of the brood. 

These facts have been demonstrated so repeatedly, that 
they are as well established as the most common laws in 
the breeding of our domestic animals. The knowledge 



30 THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 

of them in their most important bearings, is essential to 
all who would realize large profits from improved methods 
of rearing bees. Those who will not acquire the neces- 
sary information, if they keep bees at all, should manage 
them in the old-fashioned way, which demands the small- 
est amount of knowledge and skill. 

I am well aware how difficult it is to reason with bee- 
keepers, who have been so often imposed upon, that they 
have no faith in statements made by any one interested 
in a patent hive ; or who stigmatize all knowledge which 
does not square with their own, as mere " book knowl- 
edge " unworthy the attention of practical men. 

If any such read this book, let me remind them that 
all my assertions may be put to the test. So long as the 
interior of a hive was to common observers a profound 
mystery, ignorant or designing men might assert what 
they pleased of what passed in its dark recesses ; but now, 
when every comb can in a few moments be exposed to 
the full light of day, the man who publishes his own con- 
ceits for facts, will speedily earn the character both of a 
fool and an im poster. 

The Queen-Bee, as she is the common 
mother of the whole colony, may very 
properly be called the mother-bee. She 
reigns most unquestionably by a divine 
right, for every good mother ought to be a 
queen in her own family. Her shape is 
widely different from that of the other bees. 
While she is not near so bulky as a drone, her body is 
longer ; and as it is considerably more tapering, or sugar- 
loaf in form than that of a worker, she has a somewhat 
wasp-like appearance. Her wings are much shorter in 
proportion than those of the drone, or worker ; the under 
part of her body is of a goldci color, and the upper part 




NATURAL HISTORY OF THE HONEY-BEE. 31 

usually darker than that of the other bees. Her motions 
are generally slow and matronly, although she can, when 
she pleases, move with astonishing quickness. No colony 
can long exist without the presence of this all-important 
insect ; but must as surely perish, as the body without the 
spirit must hasten to inevitable decay. 

The queen is treated with the greatest respect and 
affection by the bees. A circle of her loving offspring 
constantly surrounds her,* testifying in various ways their 
dutiful regard ; some gently embracing her with their 
antennae, others offering her honey from time to time, and 
all of them politely backing out of her way, to give her a 
clear path w r hen she moves over the combs. If she is 
taken from them, the whole colony is thrown into a state 
of the most intense agitation as soon as they ascertain 
their loss ; all the labors of the hive are abandoned ; the 
bees run wildly over the combs, and frequently rush from 
the hive in anxious search for their beloved mother. If 
they cannot find her, they return to their desolate home, 
and by their sorrowful tones reveal their deep sense of so 
deplorable a calamity. Their note at such times, more 
especially when they first realize their loss, is of a pecu- 
liarly mournful character ; it sounds somewhat like a 
succession of wailings on the minor key, and can no more 
be mistaken by an experienced bee-keeper, for their 
ordinary happy hum, than the piteous moanings of a sick 
child could be confounded by the anxious mother with 
its joyous cro wings when overflowing with health and 
happiness. 

I know that all this will appear to many much more 
like romance than sober reality ; but, believing that it is a 
crime for any observer wilfully to misstate or conceal 
important truths, I have determined, in writing this book, 

* See the group of boes on the Title-rage. 



32 THE HIVE AND HOKEY-BEE. 

to give facts, however wonderful, just as they are ; confi- 
dent that in due time they will be universally received ; 
and hoping that the many wonders in the economy of the 
honey-bee will not only excite a wider interest in its cul- 
ture, but lead those who observe them to adore the 
wisdom of Him who gave them such admirable instincts. 

The fertility of the queen-bee has been entirely under- 
estimated by most writers. During the height of the 
breeding season, she will often, under favorable circum- 
stances, lay from two to three thousand eggs a day ! In 
my observing-hives, I have seen her lay at the rate of six 
eggs a minute. The fecundity of the female of the white 
ant is, however, much greater than this, being at the rate 
of sixty eggs a minute ; but her eggs are simply extruded 
from her body, and carried by the workers into suitable 
nurseries, while the queen-bee herself deposits her eggs in 
their appropriate cells. 

It has been noticed that the queen-bee usually com- 
mences laying very early in the season, and always long 
before there are any males in the hive. How then, are 
her eggs impregnated ? Francis Huber. of Geneva, by a 
long course of the most indefatigable observations, threw 
much light upon this subject. Before stating his discov- 
eries, I must pay my humble tribute of gratitude and ad- 
miration to this wonderful man. It is mortifying to every 
naturalist, and I might add, to every honest man acquaint- 
ed with the facts, to hear such an Apiarian, as Huber, 
abused by the veriest novices and imposters ; while others, 
who are indebted to his labors for nearly all that is of 
value in their works, 

" Damn with faint praise, assent with civil leer, 
And, without sneering, teach the rest to sneer.'' 

Huber in early manhood lost the use of his eyes. His 
opponents imagine that to state this fact is to discredit all 



NATURAL HISTORY OF THE HONEY-BEE. 33 

his observations. - r to make their case still stronger, 
they assert that his servant, Francis Burnens, by whose 
aid he conducted his experiments, was only an ignorant 
peasant Now this so-called " ignorant peasant " was a 
man of strong native intellect, possessing the indefatigable 
energy and enthusiasm so indispensable to a good obser- 
ver. He was a noble specimen of a self-made man, and 
rose to be the chief magistrate in the village where he 
resided. Huber has paid an admirable tribute to his 
intelligence, fidelity, indomitable patience, energy and 
skill.* 

It would be difficult to find in any language a better 
specimen of the inductive system of reasoning, than 
Ruber's work on bees, and it might be studied as a model 
of the only way of investigating nature, so as to arrive at 
reliable results. 

Huber was assisted in his researches, not only by Bur- 
nens, but by his own wife, to whom he was betrothed 
before the loss of his sight, and who nobly persisted in 
marrying him, notwithstanding his misfortune and the 
strenuous dissuasions of her friends. They lived longer 
than the ordinary term of human life in the enjoyment of 
great domestic happiness, and the amiable naturalist 
through her assiduous attentions scarcely felt the loss of 
his sight. 

Milton is believed by many to have been a better poet 
in consequence of his blindness ; and it is highly probable 
that Huber was a better Apiarian from the same cause. 
His active yet reflective mind demanded constant employ- 
ment ; and he found in the study of the habits of the 
honey-bee, full scope for his powers. All the observations 

* A single fact will show the character of the man. It became necessary, in a 
certain experiment, to examine separately all the bees in two hives. " Burnens 
spent eleven days in performing this work, and during the whole time he scarcely 
nllowed himself any relaxation but what the relief of his eyes required " 

2* 



. 



34 THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 

and experiments of his faithful assistants being dailj 
reported, many inquiries and suggestions were made by 
him, which might not have suggested themselves had he 
possessed the use of his eyes. 

Few, like him, have such command of both time and 
money as to be able to prosecute on so grand a scale, for 
a series of years, the most costly experiments. Having 
repeatedly verified his most important observations, I take 
great delight in holding him up to my countrymen as the 
Prince of Apiarians. 

To return to his discoveries on the impregnation of the 
queen-bee. By a long course of careful experiments, he 
ascertained that, like many other insects, she was fecund- 
ated in the open air and on the wing ; and that the influ- 
ence of this connection lasts for several years, and proba- 
bly for life. He could, however, form no satisfactory con- 
jecture how eggs were fertilized which were not yet 
developed in her ovaries. Years ago, the celebrated Dr. 
John Hunter, and others, supposed that there must be a 
permanent receptacle for the male sperm, opening into 
the oviduct. Dzierzon, who must be regarded as one of 
the ablest contributors of modern times to Apiarian sci- 
ence, maintains this opinion, and states that he has found 
such a receptacle filled with a fluid resembling the semen 
of the drones. He does not seem to have demonstrated 
his discoveries by any microscopic examinations. 

In the Winter of 1851-2, I submitted for scientific 
examination several queen-bees to Dr. Joseph Leidy, of 
Philadelphia, who has the highest reputation both at 
home and abroad, as a naturalist and microscopic anato- 
mist. He found in making his dissections a small globular 
sac, about s l B of an inch in diameter, communicating with 
the oviduct, and filled with a whitish fluid ; this fluid, 
when examined ruder the microscope, abounded in the 



NATURAL HISTORY OF THE HONEY-BEE. 35 

spermatozoa which characterizes the seminal fluid. A 
comparison of this substance, later in the season, with the 
semen of a drone, proved them to be exactly alike. 

These examinations have settled, on the impregnable 
basis of demonstration, the mode in which the eggs of the 
queen are vivified. In descending the oviduct to be 
deposited in the cells, they pass by the mouth of this semi- 
nal sac, or " spermatheca," and receive a portion of its fer- 
tilizing contents. Small as it is, it contains sufficient to 
impregnate hundreds of thousands of eggs; In precisely 
the same way, the mother-wasps and hornets are fecund- 
ated. The females only of these insects survive the Win- 
ter, and often a single one begins the construction of a 
nest, in which at first only a few eggs are deposited. How 
could these eggs hatch, if the females had not been impreg- 
nated the previous season ? Dissection proves that they 
have a spermatheca similar to that of the queen-bee. It 
never seems to have occurred to the opponents of Huber, 

that the existence of a 
permanently impregnated 
mother-wasp is quite as 
difficult to be accounted 
for, as the existence of 
a similarly impregnated 
queen-bee. 

The celebrated Swam- 
merdam, in his observa- 
tions upon insects, made 
in the latter part of the 
seventeenth century, has 
given a highly magni- 
fied drawing of the ova- 
ries of the queen-bee, a 
reduced copy of which I 




36 THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 

present (Plate XVIII.), to my readers. The small globu* 
lar sac (J9), communicating with the oviduct (J?), which 
he thought secreted a fluid for sticking the eggs to the 
base of the cells, is the seminal reservoir, or spermatheca. 
Any one who will carefully dissect a queen-bee, may see 
this sac, even with the naked eye. 

It will be seen that the ovaries (G- and .22") are double, 
each consisting of an amazing number of ducts* filled 
with eggs, which gradually increase in size.f 

Huber, while experimenting to ascertain how the queen 
was fecundated, confined some young ones to their hives 
by contracting the entrances, so that they were more than 
three weeks old before they could go in search of the 
drones. To his amazement, the queens whose impregna- 
tion was thus retarded never laid any eggs but such as 
produced drones ! 

He tried this experiment repeatedly, but always with 
the same result. Bee-keepers, even from the time oi 
Aristotle, had observed that all the brood in a hive were 
occasionally drones. Before attempting to explain this 
astonishing fact, I must call the attention of the reader to 
another of the mysteries of the bee-hive. 

It has already been stated, that the workers are proved 
by dissection to be females which under ordinary cir- 
cumstances are barren. Occasionally, some of them 
appear to be sufficiently developed to be capable of laying- 
eggs ; but these eggs, like those of queens whose impreg- 
nation has been retarded, always produce drones ! Some- 

* The ducts in this cut are represented as more numerous than those in Swam- 
merdam's drawing. 

■f Sinr.e the first edition of this work was issued, I have ascertained that Posel 
(page 54) describes the oviduct of the queen, the spermatheca and its contents, 
and the use of the latter in impregnating the passing egg. His work was published 
at Munich, in 1784. It seems also from his work (page 36), that before the inves- 
tigations of Huber ? Jansha, the bee-keeper royal of Maria Theresa, had discovered 
the fact that the young queens leave their hive in search of the drones. 



Fig. 13. 



Plate IV. 




Fig. 14. 




NATURAL HISTORY OF THE HONEY-BEE. 37 

times, \i hen a colony which has lost its queen despairs 
of obtaining another, these drone-laying workers are 
exalted to her place, and treated with equal regard by the 
bees. Huber ascertained that fertile workers are usually 
reared in the neighborhood of the young queens, and 
thought that they received some particles of the peculiar 
food or jelly on which these queens are fed. He did not 
pretend to account for the effect on the queen of retarded 
impregnation ; and made no experiments on the fecunda- 
tion of fertile workers. 

Since the publication of Huber'swork more than sixty 
years ago, no light has been shed upon the mysteries of 
drone-laying queens and workers, until quite recently. 
Dzierzon appears to have been the first to ascertain the 
truth on this subject ; and his discovery must certainly be 
ranked among the most astonishing facts in all the range 
of animated nature. It seems at first view so absolutely 
incredible, that I should not dare mention it, if it were 
not supported by indubitable evidence, and if I had not 
determined to state all important and well-ascertained 
facts, however contrary to the prejudices of the ignorant 
and conceited. 

Dzierzon asserts, that all impregnated eggs produce 
females, either workers or queens ; and all unimpregnated 
ones, males or drones ! He states that in several of his 
hives he found drone-laying queens, whose wings were so 
imperfect that they could not fly, and which on examina 
tion proved to be unfecundated. Hence, he concluded 
that the eggs laid by the queen-bee and fertile worker 
had, from the previous impregnation of the egg from 
which they sprung, sufficient vitality to produce the drone, 
which is a less highly organized insect than the queen or 
worker. It had long been known that the queen deposits 
drone-eggs in the large or drone-cells, and worker-eggs 



38 THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 

in the small or worker-cells, and that she makes no mis- 
takes. Dzierzon inferred, therefore, that there was some 
way in which she was able to decide the sex of the egg 
before it was laid, and that she must have such a control 
over the mouth of the seminal sac as to be able to extrude 
her eggs, allowing them at will to receive or not a portion 
of its fertilizing contents. In this way he thought she 
determined their sex, according to the size of the cells 
in which she laid them. 

My friend, Mr. Samuel Wagner, of York, Pennsyl- 
vania, has advanced a highly ingenious theory, which 
accounts for all the facts, without admitting that the 
queen has any special knowledge or will on the subject. 
He supposes that when she deposits her eggs in the 
worker-cells, her body is slightly compressed by their 
size, thus causing the eggs as they pass the spermatheea 
to receive its vivifying influence. On the contrary, when 
she is laying in drone-cells, as this compression cannot 
take place, the mouth of the spermatheea is kept closed, 
and the eggs are necessarily unfecundated. 

In the Autumn of 1852, my assistant found a young 
queen whose progeny consisted entirely of drones. The 
colony had been formed by removing a few combs con- 
taining bees, brood, and eggs, from another hive, and had 
raised a new queen. Some eggs were found in one of 
the combs, and young bees were already emerging from 
the cells, all of which were drones. As there were none 
but worker-cells in the hive, they were reared in them, 
and not having space for full development, they were 
dwarfed in size, although the bees had pieced the cells to 
give more room to their occupants. 

I was not only surprised to find drones reared in worker- 
cells, but equally so that a young queen, who at first lays 
only the eggs of workers, should be laying drone-eggs; 



NATURAL HISTORY OF THE HONEY-BEE. 39 

and at once conjectured that this was a case of an unim- 
pregnated drone-laying queen, sufficient time not having 
elapsed for her impregnation to be unnaturally retarded. 
All necessary precautions were taken to determine this 
point. The queen was removed from the hive, and 
althougli her wings appeared to be perfect, she could not 
fly. It seemed probable, therefore, that she had never 
been able to leave the hive for impregnation. 

To settle the question beyond the possibility of doubt, 
I submitted this queen to Professor Leidy for microscopic 
examination. The following is an extract from his re- 
port. " The ovaries were filled with eggs, the poison-sac 
full of fluid ; and the spermatheca distended with a per- 
fectly colorless, transparent, viscid liquid, without a t?*ace 
of spermatozoa." 

This examination demonstrates Dzierzon's theory that 
queens do not need impregnation to lay the eggs of males. 

Considerable doubt seemed to rest on the accuracy of 
Dzierzon's statements on this subject, chiefly because of 
his having hazarded the unfortunate conjecture that the 
place of the poison-bag in the worker is occupied in the 
queen by the spermatheca. Now this is so completely 
contrary to fact (PL XVIII., A, Z>,) that it was a natural 
inference that this acute and thoroughly honest observer 
made no microscopic dissections of the insects which he 
examined. I consider myself peculiarly fortunate, in 
having obtained the aid of a naturalist so celebrated for 
microscopic dissections as Dr. Leidy. 

On examining this same colony a few days later, I found 
satisfactory evidence that these drone-eggs were laid by 
the queen which had been removed. No fresh eggs had 
been deposited in the cells, and the bees on missing her 
had begun to build royal cells, to rear, if possible, another 
queen; this they would not have done, if a fertile worker 



40 THE HIVE AND HOXEY-BEE. 

had been present, by which the drone-eggs had been de- 
posited. 

Another interesting fact proves that all the eggs laid 
by this queen were drone-eggs. Two of the royal cells 
were in a short time discontinued ; while a third was 
sealed over in the usual way, to undergo its changes to a 
perfect queen. As the bees had only a drone-laying 
queen, whence came the female egg from which they 
were rearing a queen ? 

At first I imagined that they might have stolen it from 
an other hive ; but on opening this cell it contained only a 
dead drone ! Huber had described a similar mistake made 
by some of his bees. At the base of this cell was an unu- 
sual quantity of the peculiar jelly fed to develop young 
queens. One might almost imagine that the bees had 
dosed the unfortunate drone to death; as though they 
hoped by such liberal feeding to produce a change in his 
sexual organization. 

In the Summer of 1854, I found another drone-laying 
queen in my Apiary, with wings so . shrivelled that she 
could not fly. I gave her successively to several queen- 
less colonies, in all of which she deposited only drone-eggs. 

On the 14th of July, 1855, a queen in one of my observ- 
ing-hives began to lay, when nine days old, a few eggs on 
the edges of the combs, instead of in the cells. She per- 
sisted in this for some days, until I transferred her to a 
colony which had been queenless for some weeks, hoping 
that she might, if unimpregnated, make an excursion from 
their hive to meet the drones. The observing-hive in 
which she was hatched was exposed to the full light of 
day ; the entrance small, and difficult to find ; and I had 
noticed on several occasions, that when the drones left 
the hive in the greatest numbers, the queen seemed un- 
able to find her way out. At such times she manifested 



NATURAL HISTORY OF THE HONEY-BEE. 41 

unusual excitement, and the whole colony were almost as 
much agitated as though they were swarming. After she 
had been in the second hive a short time, I found that she 
had laid a number of drone-eggs. They were deposited 
near the bottom and edge of the comb, in cells a little 
larger than the worker-size, and which the bees had begun 
to lengthen, to adapt them to the growth of their occu- 
pants. There was no other brood in the hive. On the 
9th of August, I found the combs nearly filled with 
worker-brood, in a state considerably less advanced than 
the drones. Is there any reason to doubt that these 
drone-eggs were laid by the queen before, and the worker- 
eggs after, her impregnation ? 

In Italy there is a variety of the honey-bee differing in 
size and color from the common kind. If a queen of this 
variety is crossed with the common drones, her drone- 
progeny will be Italian, and her worker brood a cross 
between the two; thus showing that the kind of drones 
she will produce has no dependence on the male by which 
she is fecundated. 

It appears from recent discoveries in physiology, that to 
impregnate the ovum of an animal it is necessary that the 
spermatozoa should not simply come in contact with it, 
but actually enter into it through a small opening. In 
applying this discovery to bees, Prof. Siebold, of Germany, 
dissected a number of worker-eggs, and found in each 
from one to three spermatozoa ; while he found none in 
dissecting drone-eggs.. 

Dr. Donhoff, of Germany, in the Summer 1855, reared 
a worker-larvae from a drone-egg,* which he had artifi- 
cially impregnated. 

* I attempted to do this in 1852 ; but to my great disappointment, the bees re- 
moved or devoured all the eggs thus treated ; owing as I then supposed to their 
unwillingness to raise workers in drone-cells. If some of the eggs just deposited 
in a piece of drone -comb are touched with a fiae brush dipped iu the diluted semen 



42 THE HIVE AXD HONEY-BEE. 

Aristotle noticed, more than 2,000 years ago, that the 
eggs which produce drones are like the worker-eggs. 
With the aid of powerful microscopes we are still unable 
to detect any difference in the size or appearance of the 
eggs of the queen. 

These tacts taken in connection, appear to constitute a 
perfect demonstration that unfecundated queens are not 
only able to lay eggs, but that their eggs have sufficient 
vitality to produce drones. 

It seems to me probable, that after fecundation has 
been delayed for about three weeks, the organs of the 
queen-bee are in such a condition that it can no longer be 
effected ; just as the parts of a flower, after a certain 
time, wither and shut up, and the plant becomes incapa- 
ble of fructification. Perhaps, after a certain time, the 
queen loses all desire to go in search of the male. The 
fertile drone-laying workers would seem to be physically 
incapable of impregnation. 

There is something analogous to these wonders in the 
" aphides " or green lice, which infest plants. We have 
undoubted evidence that a fecundated female gives birth 
to other females, and they in turn to others, all of which 
without impregnation are able to bring forth young ; 
until, after a number of generations, perfect males and 
females are produced, and the series starts anew ! 

However improbable it may appear that an unimpreg- 
nated egg can give birth to a living being, or that sex can 
depend on impregnation, we are not at liberty to reject 
facts because we cannot comprehend the reasons of them. 
He who allows himself to be guilty of such folly, if he 
aims to be consistent, must eventually be plunged into 
the dreary gulf of atheism. Common sense, philosophy, 

of drones, and given to bees which have neither queen nor brood of any kind, 1 
believe that queen ?, workers, and drones, may be raised from them. 






NATURAL HISTORY OF THE HONEY-BEE. 43 



and religion alike teach us to receive, with becoming 
reverence, all undoubted facts, whether in the natural or 
spiritual world ; assured that however mysterious they 
may appear to us, they are beautifully consistent in the 
sight of Him whose u understanding is infinite." 

All the leading facts in the breeding of bees ought to 
be as familiar to the Apiarian, as the same class of facts 
in the rearing of his domestic animals.* A few crude and 
half-digested notions, however satisfactory to the old-fash- 
ioned bee-keeper, will no longer meet the wants of those 
who desire to conduct bee-culture on an extended and 
profitable system. 

The extraordinary fertility of the queen-bee has already 
been noticed. The process of laying has been well 
described by the Rev. W. Dunbar, a Scotch Apiarian. 

"When the queen is about to lay, she puts her head 
into a cell, and remains in that position for a second or 
two, to ascertain its fitness for the deposit she is about to 
make. She then withdraws her head, and curving her 
body downwards,f inserts the lower part of it into the 
cell : in a few seconds she turns half round upon herself 
and withdraws, leaving an egg behind her. When she , 
lays a considerable number, she does it equally on each 
side of the comb, those on the one side being as exactly 
opposite to those on the other as the relative position of 
the cells will admit. The effect of this is to produce the 
utmost possible concentration and economy of heat for 
developing the various changes of the brood !" 

Here, as at every step in the economy of the bee, we 

* " If it were possible," said an able German Apiarian, in 1846, " to ascertain the 
reproductive process of bees with as much certainty as that of our domestic ani- 
mals, bee-culture might unquestionably be pursued with positive assurance of 
profit ; and would assume a high rank among the various branches of rural 
r lonomy." 

| She is thus sure to deposit the egg in the selected cell. 



44 TEE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 

behold, in the perfect adaptation of means to ends, a 
sagacity which seems scarcely inferior to that of man. 

" The eggs of bees* are of a lengthened, oval shape 
(PI. XIII., Fig. 39), with a slight curvature, and of a bluish 
white color: being besmeared, at the time of laying, with 
a glutinous substance, they adhere to the bases of the 
cells, and remain unchanged in figure or situation for three 
or four days ; they are then hatched, the bottom of each 
cell presenting to view a small white worm. On its grow- 
ing (PI. XIII., Figs. 40, 41), so as to touch the opposite 
angle of the cell, it coils itself up, to use the language of 
Swammerdam, like a dog when going to sleep ; and floats 
in a whitish transparent fluid, which is deposited in the 
cells by the nursing-bees, and by which itJis probably 
nourished ; it becomes gradually enlarged in its dimen- 
sions, till the two extremities touch one another, and form 
a ring. In this state it is called a larva, or worm. So 
nicely do the bees calculate the quantity of food which will 
be required, that none remains in the cell when it is trans- 
formed to a nymph. It is the opinion of many eminent 
naturalists, that farina does not constitute the sole food 
of the larva, but that it consists of a mixture of farina, 
honey, and water, partly digested in the stomachs of the 
nursing-bees. 

" The larva having derived its support, in the manner 
above described, for four, five, or six days, according to 
the season, continues to increase during that period, till it 
occupies the whole breadth, and nearly the length of the 
cell. The nursing-bees now seal over the cell with a 
light brown cover, externally more or less convex (the 
cap of a drone-cell being more convex than that of a 
worker), and thus differing from that of a honey-cell, which 
is paler and somewhat concave." The cap of the brood- 

* " Bevan on the Honay-Bee." 



Fig. 16. 



Plate V. 




^.Arf. T l o O 



M%^^^s?^s==^r - D f^s/wx'-' " ' 



Fig. 17. 




NATURAL HISTORY OF THE HONEY-BEE. 45 

cell is made not of pure wax, but of a mixture of bee- 
bread and wax ; and appears under the microscope to be 
full of fine holes, to give air to the inclosed insect. From 
its texture and shape it is easily thrust off by the bee 
when mature, whereas if it consisted wholly of wax, the 
insect would either perish for lack of air, or be unable to 
force its way into the world. Both the material and shape 
of the lids which close the honey-cells are different: they 
are of pure wax, and thus air-tight, to prevent the honey 
from souring or candying in the cells ; and are slightly 
concave, the better to resist the pressure of their contents- 

To return to Bevan. " The larva is no sooner perfectly 
inclosed than it begins to line the cell by spinning round 
itself, after the manner of the silk-worm (PL XIII., Fig. 
42), a whitish silky film, or cocoon, by which it is encased, 
as it were, in a pod. When it has undergone this change, 
is has usually borne the name of nymph, or pupa. It has 
now attained its full growth, and the large amount of 
nutriment which it has taken serves as a store for devel- 
oping the perfect insect. 

" The working bee-nymph spins its cocoon in thirty-six 
hours. After passing about three days in this state of 
preparation for a new existence, it gradually undergoes so 
great a change (PL XIII., Fig. 43) as not to wear a ves- 
tige of its previous form. 

" When it has reached the twenty-first day of its exist- 
ence, counting from the time the egg is laid, it comes 
forth a perfect winged insect. The cocoon is left behind, 
and forms a closely attached and exact lining to the cell 
in which it was spun ; by this means the breeding cells 
become smaller, and their partitions stronger, the oftener 
they change their tenants ; and may become so much 
diminished in size, as not to admit of the perfect develop- 
ment of full-sized bees. 



46 THE niVE AND HONEY-BEE. 

" Such are the respective stages of the working-bee :— 
those of the royal bee are as follows : she passes three 
days in the egg, and is five a worm ; the workers then 
close her cell, and she immediately begins spinning her 
cocoon, which occupies her twenty-four hours. On the 
tenth and eleventh days, and a part of the twelfth, as if 
exhausted by her labor, she remains in complete repose. 
Then she passes four days and a part of the fifth as a 
nymph. It is on the sixteenth day, therefore, that the 
perfect state of queen is attained. 

" The drone passes three days in the egg, and six and a 
half as a worm, and changes into a perfect insect on the 
twenty-fourth or twenty-fifth day after the egg is laid. 

" The development of each species likewise proceeds 
more slowly when the colonies are weak, or the air cool. 
Dr. Hunter has observed that the eggs, worms, and 
nymphs all require a heat above 70° of Fahrenheit for 
their evolution. Both drones and workers, on emerging 
from the cell, are at first gray, soft, and comparatively 
helpless, so that some time elapses before they take wing. 

"The workers and drones spin complete cocoons, or 
inclose themselves on every side, while the royal larvae 
construct only imperfect cocoons, open behind, and envel- 
oping only the head, thorax, and first ring of the abdo- 
men; and Huber concludes, without any hesitation, that 
the final cause of this is, that they may be exposed to the 
mortal sting of the first hatched queen, whose instinct 
leads her instantly to seek the destruction of those who 
would soon become her rivals. 

" If the royal larvae spun complete cocoons, the stings 
of the queens seeking to destroy their rivals might be so 
entangled in their meshes that they could not be disen- 
gaged. ' Such,' says Huber, ' is the instinctive enmity of 
young queens to each other, that I have seen one of them, 



NATURAL HISTORY OF THE HONEY-BEE. 47 

immediately on its emergence from the cell, rush to those 
of its sisters, and tear to pieces even the imperfect larvae. 
Hitherto, philosophers have claimed our admiration of na- 
ture for her care in preserving and multiplying the species. 
But from these facts, we must now admire her precautions 
in exposing certain individuals to a mortal hazard.' " 

The cocoon of the royal larvae is very much stronger 
and coarser than that of the drone or worker, — its texture 
considerably resembling that spun by the silk-worm. The 
young queen dees not ordinarily leave her cell until she is 
quite mature ; and as its great size allows the free exercise 
of her wings, she is usually capable of flying as soon as she 
quits it. While still in her cell, she makes the fluttering 
and piping noises so familiar to observant bee-keepers. 

When the eggs of the queen are fully developed, like 
those of the domestic hen, they must be extruded ; but 
some Apiarians believe that she can regulate their devel- 
opment so that few or many are produced, according to 
the necessities of the colony. That this is true to a cer- 
tain extent, seems highly probable ; for if a queen is taken 
from a feeble colony, her abdomen seldom appears greatly 
distended; and yet if put in a strong one, she speedily be- 
comes very prolific. Mr. Wagner says, a I conceive that 
she has the power of regulating or repressing the develop- 
ment of her eggs, so that gradually she can diminish the 
number maturing, and finally cease laying and remain in- 
active, as long as circumstances require. The old queen 
appears to qualify herself for accompanying a first swarm 
by repressing* the development of eggs, and as this is done 
at the most genial season of the year, it does not seem to 
be the result of atmospheric influence." 

It is certain that when the weather is uncongenial, or 
the colony too feeble to maintain sufficient heat, fewer 

* Habor attributes her reduced s'ze before swarming to a wrong cause. 



48 THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 

eggs are matured, just as unfavorable circumstances 
dimmish the number of eggs laid by the hen ; and when 
the weather is very cold, the queen stops laying in weak 
colonies. 

In the latitude of Northern Massachusetts, I have found 
that the queen ordinarily ceases to lay some time in Octo- 
ber ; and begins again, in strong stocks, in the latter part 
of December. On the 14th of January, 1857 (the previ- 
ous month having been very cold, the thermometer some- 
times sinking to 17° below zero), I examined three hives, 
and found that the central combs in two contained eggs 
and unsealed brood ; there were a few cells with sealed 
brood in the third. Strong stocks even in the coldest cli- 
mates usually contain some brood ten months in the year. 

It is amusing to see how the supernumerary eggs of the 
queen are disposed of. If the workers are too fqw to take 
charge of all her eggs, or there is a deficiency of bee-bread 
to nourish the young ; or if, for any reason, she does not 
judge best to deposit them in the cells, she stands upon 
a comb, and simply extrudes them from her oviduct, the 
workers devouring them as fast as they are laid. I have 
repeatedly witnessed in observing-hives the sagacity of 
the queen in thus economising her necessary work, in- 
stead of depositing her eggs in cells where they are not 
wanted. What a difference between her and the stupid 
hen, which so obstinately persists in sitting upon addled 
eggs, pieces of chalk, and often upon nothing at all ! 

The workers devour also all eggs which are dropped 
or deposited out of place by the queen; thus, even a tiny 
egg, instead of being wasted, is turned to good account. 

One who carefully watches the habits of bees will often 
feel inclined to speak of his little favorites as having an 
intelligence almost if not quite akin to reason; and I have 
sometimes queried, whether the workers who are so fond 



Fig. 18. 



Plate VI. 




* 



<N 



Fig. 



to. 




Fig. 19. 




NATURAL HISTORY OF THE HONEY-BEE. 49 

of a tit-bit in the shape of a newly laid egg, ever experi- 
ence a struggle between appetite and duty ; so that they 
must practice self-denial to refrain from breakfasting on 
the eggs so temptingly deposited in the cells. 

It is well known to breeders of poultry, that the fertility 
of a hen decreases with age, until at length she may 
become entirely barren. By the same law, the fecundity 
of the queen-bee ordinarily diminishes after she has entered 
her third year. An old queen sometimes ceases to lay 
worker-eggs ; the contents of her spermatheca becoming 
exhausted, the eggs are no longer impregnated, and pro- 
duce only drones. 

The queen-bee usually dies of old age in her fourth year, 
although she has been known to live much longer. There 
is great advantage, therefore, in hives which allow her, 
when she has passed the period of her greatest fertility, to 
be easily removed. 

Before proceeding farther in the natural history of the 
queen-bee, I shall describe more particularly the other 
inmates of the hive. 

The Drones are, unquestionably, the 
male bees ; dissection proving that they 
have the appropriate organs of genera- 
tion. They are much larger and stouter 
than either the queen or workers; 
although their bodies are not quite so 
long as that of the queen. They have no sting with w r hich 
to defend themselves ; and no suitable proboscis for gath- 
ering honey from the flowers ; no baskets on their thighs 
for holding bee-bread, and no pouches on their abdomens 
for secreting wax. They are, therefore, physically dis- 
qualified for the ordinary work of the hive. Their proper 
office is to impregnate the young queens, and they are 

3 




50 THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 

usually destroyed by the bees soon after this 4s accom- 
plished. 

Dr. Evans, an English physician and the author of a 
beautiful poem on bees, thus appropriately describes 
them : 

" Their short proboscis sips 
No luscious nectar from the wild thyme's lips, 
From the lime's leaf no amber drops they steal, 
Nor bear their grooveless thighs the foodful meal : 
On other's toils in pamper'd leisure thrive 
The lazy fathers of the industrious hive." 

The drones begin to make their appearance in April or 
May ; earlier or later, according to the forwardness of the 
season, and the strength of the stock. In colonies too 
weak to swarm, none as a general rule are reared ; for in 
such hives, as no young queens are raised, drones would 
be only useless consumers. 

The number of drones in a hive is often very great, 
amounting not merely to hundreds, but sometimes to thou- 
sands. As a single one will impregnate a queen for life, 
it would seem that only a few should be reared. But 
as sexual intercourse always takes place high up in the 
air, the young queens must necessarily leave the hive ; 
and it is very important to their safety that they should 
be sure to find a drone without being compelled to make 
frequent excursions ; for being larger than workers, and 
less active on the wing, queens are more exposed to be 
caught by birds, or destroyed by sudden gusts of wind. 

In a large Apiary, a few drones in each hive, or the 
number usually found in one, would suffice. But under 
such circumstances bees are not in a state of nature, like 
a colony living in a forest, which often has no neighbors 
for miles. A good stock, even in our climate, sometimes 
sends out three or more swarms, and in the tropica] 



NATURAL HISTORY OF THE HONEY-BEE. 51 

climates, of which the bee is probably a native, they 
increase with astonishing rapidity.* Every new swarm, 
except the first, is led off by a young queen ; and as she 
is never impregnated until she has been established as the 
head of a separate family, it is important that each should 
be accompanied by a goodly number of drones : this 
requires the production of a large number in the parent- 
hive. 

As this necessity no longer exists when the bee is 
domesticated, the breeding of so many drones should be 
discouraged. Trapsf have been invented to destroy them, 
but it is much better to save the bees the labor and ex- 
pense of rearing such a host of useless consumers. This 
can readily be done, when we have the control of the 
combs ; for by removing the drone-comb, and supplying 
its place with worker-cells, the over production of drones 
may be easily prevented. Those who object to this, as 
interfering with nature, should remember that the bee is 
not in a state of nature; and that the same objection 
might, with equal force, be urged against killing off the 
supernumerary males of our domestic animals. 

When a new swarm is building its combs, if the 
honey-harvest is abundant, the bees will frequently con- 
struct an unusual amount of drone-combs, for storing it. 
In a state of nature, where bees have plenty of room, as 
in the hollow of a tree, or cleft of a rock, this excess of 
drone-comb will be used another season for the same pur- 
pose, and new worker-comb made to meet the enlarged 
wants of the colony ; but in hives of a limited capacity 
this cannot be done, and thus many stocks become so 
crowded with drones as to be of little value to their owner. 

* At Sydney, in Australia, a single colony is stated to nave multiplied to 300, in 
three years. 
t Such traps were used in Aristotle's time. 



62 THE HIVE AND HOXEY-BEE. 

In July or August, or soon after the swarming season 
is over, the bees usually expel the drones from the hive ; 
though, when the honey-harvest is very abundant, they 
often allow them to remain much later. They sometimes 
sting them, or gnaw the roots of their wings, so that when 
driven from the hive, they cannot return. If not ejected 
in either of these summary ways, they are so persecuted 
and starved, th r t they soon perish. At such times they 
often retreat from the comb, and keep by themselves upon 
the sides or bottom-board of the hive. The hatred of the 
bees extends even to the unhatched young, which are 
mercilessly pulled from the cells and destroyed with the 
rest. How wonderful that instinct which, when there is 
no longer any occasion for their services, impels the bees 
to destroy those members of the colony reared but a short 
time before with such devoted attention ! 

None of the reasons previously assigned seem fully to 
account for the necessity of so many drones. I have 
repeatedly queried, why impregnation might not have 
taken place in the hive, instead of in the open air. A few 
dozen drones would then have sufficed for the wants of 
any colony, even if it swarmed, as in warm climates, half 
a dozen times, or oftener, in the same season ; and the 
young queens would have incurred no risks by leaving the 
hive for fecundation. 

For a long time I could not perceive the wisdom of the 
existing arrangement ; although I never doubted that there 
was a satisfactory reason for this seeming imperfection. 
To have supposed otherwise, would have been highly 
unphilosophical, when we know that with the increase of 
knowledge many mysteries in nature, once inexplicable, 
have been fully cleared up. 

The disposition cherished by many students of nature, 
to reject some of the doctrines of revealed religion, is not 



.NATURAL HISTORY OF THE HONEY-BEE. 53 

prompted by a true philosophy. Neither our ignorance 
of all the facts necessary to their full elucidation, nor our 
inability to harmonize these facts in their mutual relations 
and dependencies, will justify us in rejecting any truth 
which God has seen fit to reveal, either in the book of 
nature, or in His holy word. The man who would substi- 
tute his own speculations for the divine teachings, has 
embarked without rudder or chart, pilot or compass, on 
an uncertain ocean of theory and conjecture ; unless he 
turns his prow from its fatal course, storms and whirlwinds 
will thicken in gloom on his " voyage of life ;" no " Sun 
of Righteousness " will ever brighten for him the expanse 
of dreary waters ; no favoring gales will waft his shattered 
bark to a peaceful haven. 

The thoughtful reader will require no apology for this 
moralizing strain, nor blame a clergyman, if sometimes 
forgetting to speak as the mere naturalist, he endeavors 
to find 

" Tongues in trees, books in running brooks, 
Sermons in ■ bees,' and ' God ' in every thing." 

To return to the attempt to account for the existence 
of so many drones. If a farmer persists in what is called 
" breeding in and in," that is, without changing the blood, 
the ultimate degeneracy of his stock is the consequence. 
This law extends, as far as we know, to all animal life, man 
himself not being exempt from its influence. Have we 
any reason to suppose that the bee is an exception ? or 
that degeneracy would not ensue, unless some provision 
were made to counteract the tendency to " in and in 
breeding ?" If fecundation had taken place in the hive, 
the queen would have been impregnated by drones from 
a common parent ; and the same result must have taken 
place in each successive generation, until the whole species 



54: THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 

would eventually have " run out." By the present arrange- 
ment, the young queens when they leave the hive, often 
find the air swarming with drones, many of which belong 
to other colonies, and thus by crossing the breed pro- 
vision is constantly made to prevent deterioration. 

Experience has proved that impregnation may be 
effected not only when there are no drones in the colony 
of the young queen, but even when there are none in her 
immediate neighborhood. Intercourse takes place very 
high in the air (perhaps that less risk may be incurred 
from birds), and this favors the crossing of stocks. 

I am strongly persuaded that the decay of many flour- 
ishing stocks, even when managed with great care, may be 
attributed to the fact that they have become enfeebled by 
" close breeding," and are thus unable to resist injurious 
influences, which were comparatively harmless when the 
bees were in a state of high physical vigor. When a cul- 
tivator has but few colonies, or is remote from other 
Apiaries, he should guard against this evil by occasionally 
changing his stocks. 

The Workers, or common bees, compose 
the bulk of the population of a hive. A good 
swarm ought to contain at least 20,000 ; and 
in large hives, strong colonies which are not 
reduced by swarming, frequently number two 
or three times as many during the height of the breeding 
season. We are informed by Mr. Dobrogost Chylinski, 
that from the Polish hives, which often hold several bushels, 
swarms regularly issue so powerful that " they resemble 
a little cloud in the air," 

It has already been stated, that the workers are all 
females whose ovaries arc too imperfectly developed to 
admit of their laying eggs. Being for a long time 




NATURAL HISTORY OF THE HONEY-BEE. 55 

regarded as neither males nor females, they were called 
Neuters ; but careful microscopic examinations, by detect- 
ing the rudiments of their ovaries, have determined their 
sex. The accuracy of these examinations has been verified 
by the well known facts respecting fertile workers. 

Riem, a German Apiarian, first discovered that workers 
sometimes lay eggs. Huber subsequently ascertained that 
such workers were bred in hives that had lost their queen, 
and near the royal cells in which young queens were being 
reared. He conj ectured that small portions of the peculiar 
food of these infant queens were accidentally dropped 
into their cells, by eating which their reproductive organs 
were more developed than those of other workers. 

In the Summer of 1854, 1 examined a brood-comb which 
had been given to a queenless colony. It contained eleven 
sealed queens; and numbers of the cells were capped with 
a round covering, as though they contained drones. 
Being opened, some contained drone, and others worker- 
nymphs. The latter seemed of a little more sugar-loaf 
shape than the common workers, and their cocoons were 
of a coarser texture than usual. I had previously noticed 
the same kind of cells in hives raising artificial queens, but 
thought they all contained drones. It is a well known 
fact, that bees often begin more queen-cells than they 
choose to finish. It seems to me probable, therefore, that 
when rearing queens artificially, they frequently give a 
portion of the royal jelly to larvae, which, for some reason, 
they do not develope as full grown queens; and that such 
larvaa become fertile workers. Huber states that those 
fertile workers which lay only drone-eggs, prefer large 
cells in which to deposit them, resorting to small ones, 
only when unable to find those of greater diameter. A 
hive in my Apiary having much worker-comb, but only a 
small piece of drone size, a fertile worker filled the latter 



56 THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 

so entirely with eggs that some of the cells contained 
three or four each. Such workers have, in rare instances, 
been tolerated hi hives containing a fertile, healthy 
queen. 

The worker is much smaller than either the queen or 
the drone. She is furnished with a tongue, or proboscis, 
so exceedingly curious and complicated, that a separate 
volume would hardly suffice to describe its structure and 
uses (PI. XVI., Fig. 51). With this organ she obtains the 
honey from the blossoms, and conveys it to her honey-bag. 
This receptacle (PI. XVII., Fig. 54, A), is not larger than 
a very small pea, and so perfectly transparent as to appear, 
when filled, of the same color with its contents ; it is 
properly the first stomach, and is surrounded by muscles 
which enable the bee to compress it, and empty its con- 
tents through her proboscis into the cells. 

The hinder legs of the worker are furnished with a 
spoon-shaped hollow, or basket, to receive the pollen 
which she gathers from the flowers. 

• Every worker is armed with a formidable sting, and 
when provoked makes instant and effectual use of her 
natural weapon. When subjected to a microscopic exam- 
ination (PI. XVII., Fig. 53), it exhibits a very intricate 
mechanism. "It is moved by muscles* which, though 
invisible to the eye, are yet strong enough to force the 
sting, to the depth of one-twelfth of an inch, through the 
thick skin of a man's hand. At its root are situated two 
glands by which the poison is secreted ; these glands 
uniting in one duct, eject the venomous liquid along the 
groove formed by the junction of the two piercers. 
There are four barbs on the outside of each piercer ; when 
the insect is prepared to sting, one of these piercers, 
having its point a little longer than the other, first darts 

* Bevan. 






NATURAL HISTORY OF THE HONEY-BEE. 5Y 

into the flesh, and being fixed by its foremost beard, the 
other strikes in also, and they alternately penetrate deeper 
and deeper, till they acquire a firm hold of the flesh with 
their barbed hooks, and then follows the sheath, conveying 
the poison into the wound. 'The action of the sting,' 
says Paley, ' affords an example of the union of chemistry 
and mechanism ; of chemistry, in respect to the venom 
which can produce such powerful effects ; of mechanism, 
as the sting is a compound instrument. The machinery 
would have been comparatively useless, had it not been 
for the chemical process by which, in the insect's body, 
honey is converted into poison ; and on the other hand, 
the poison would have been ineffectual, without an instru- 
ment to wound, and a syringe to inject it.' 

" Upon examining the edge of a very keen razor by the 
microscope, it appears as broad as the back of a pretty 
thick knife, rough, uneven, and full of notches and fur- 
rows, and so far from anything like sharpness, that an 
instrument as blunt as this seemed to be, would not serve 
even to cleave wood. An exceedingly small needle being 
also examined, it resembled a rough iron bar out of a 
smith's forge. The sting of a bee, viewed through the 
same instrument, showed everywhere a polish amazingly 
beautiful, without the least flaw, blemish, or inequality, 
and ended in a point too fine to be discerned." 

As the extremity of the sting is barbed like an arrow, 
the bee can seldom withdraw it, if the substance into 
which she darts it is at all tenacious. In losing her sting 
she parts with a portion of her intestines, and of necessity 
soon perishes. 

Although they pay so dearly for the exercise of their 
patriotic instincts, still, in defence of home and its sacred 
treasures, they 



58 THE tf'VE AND HONEY-BEE 

" Deem life itself to vengeance well resigned, 
Die on the wound, and leave their sting behind.* 

Hornets, wasps, and other stinging insects, are able to 
withdraw their stings from the wound. I have never seen 
the exception in the case of the honey-bee accounted for ; 
but as the Creator intended it for the use* of man, did He 
not give it this peculiarity, that it might be more com- 
pletely subject to human control ? Without a sting, it 
could not have defended its tempting sweets against a 
host of greedy depredators : while, if it had been able to 
sting a number of times, its thorough domestication would 
have been well nigh impossible. 

The defence of the colony against enemies, the construc- 
tion of the cells, and storing of them with honey and bee- 
bread, the rearing of the young, and in short, the whole 
work of the hive, the laying of eggs excepted, is carried 
on by the industrious little workers. 

There may be gentlemen of leisure in the commonwealth 
of bees, but assuredly there are no such ladies, whether of 
high or low degree. The queen herself has her full share 
of duties, the royal office being no sinecure, when the 
mother who fills it must daily superintend the proper 
deposition of thousands of eggs. 

The queen-bee will live four, and sometimes, though 
very rarely, five or more years. As the life of the drones 
is usually cut short by violence, it is difficult to ascertain 
its precise limit. Bevan estimates it not to exceed four 
months. The workers are supposed by him to live six or 

* Since the publication of the first edition of this treatise, I have had an opportu- 
nity during a visit to the Mexican frontier, of studying the habits of the honey-hornet, 
of that region. Its nest, in shape and material, resembles that of our common hor- 
net ; and some of them contain many pounds of delicious honey. This insect, 
which in those regions is so serviceable to man, like the honey-bee, is unable to 
withdraw its sting from the wound. It has also a queen, and lives in a colony 
state during the whole year. 



NATURAL HISTORY OF THE HONEY-BEE. 59 

*even months; but their age depends very much upon 
their greater or less exposure to injurious influences, and 
severe labors. Those reared in the Spring and early part 
of Summer, upon whom the heaviest labors of the hive 
devolve, appear to live not more than two or three 
months*; while those bred at the oloseof Summer, and 
early in Autumn, being able to spend a Urge part of 
their time in repose, attain a much greater age. It is very 
evident that u the Lee" (to use the words of a quaint, old 
writer), " is a Summer bird;" and that, with the excep- 
tion of the queen, none live to be a year old. 
Notched and ragged wings, instead of gray hairs and 

wrinkled faces, are the signs of old age in the bee, and 
indicate that its season of toil will soon be over. They 
appear to die rather suddenly; and often spend their last 
days, and sometimes even their last hours, in useful labors. 
Place yourself before a hive, and see the indefatigable 
energy of these industrious veterans, toiling along with 
their heavy burdens, side by side with their more youth- 
ful compeers, and then judge if, while qualified for useful 
labor, you ought ever to surrender yourself to slothful 
indulgence. Let the cheerful hum of their busy old age 

inspire you with better resolutions, and teach you how 

much nobler it is to die with harness on, in the active 
discharge of the duties of life. 

The age which individual members of the community 
may attain, must, not be confounded with that of the col- 
ony. Bees have been known to occupy the same domicile 
for a great number of years. I have seen flourishing colo- 
nies more than twenty years old ; tin; Abbe Delia Rocca 
speaks of some over forty years old ; and Stoche says, that 
he saw a colony, which he was assured had swarmed annually 

* If an Italian queen be given, In the working season, to a swarm of common 
bees, In about three months only a fow of the. latter will be found in the rolnnv 



t>0 THE UIVK AND H02TKY-BEK. 

for forty-six years ! " Such cases have led to the erroneou 
opinion, that bees are a long-lived race. But this, as Dr. 
Evans has observed, is just as wise as if a stranger, con- 
templating a populous city, and personally unacquainted 
with its inhabitants, should, on paying it a second visit, 
many years after, and finding it equally populous, imagine 
that it was peopled by the same individuals, not ono of 
whom might then be living. 

4 Like loaves on trees, the raee of bees is found, 
Now green in youth, now withering on the ground ; 
Another raee the Spring or Fall supplies, 
They droop successive, and successive rise.' " 

Evans. 

The cocoons spun by the larva? are never removed by 
the bees ; they adhere so closely to the sides of the cells, 
that the labor of removal would cost more than it would 
be worth. As the breeding cells may eventually become 
too small for the proper development of the young, very 
old combs should be removed from the hive. It is a great 
mistake, however, to imagine that the brood-combs ought 
to be changed every year. If it were desirable, this 
might easily be done in my hives ; but to remove them 
oftener than once in five or six years, requires a needless 
consumption of honey to replace them, and injures the 
bees in Winter, as the new comb is much colder than the 
old. 

Inventors of hives have too often been " men of one 
idea :" and that one, instead of being a well established 
and important fact in the physiology of the bee, has fre- 
quently (like the necessity for a yearly change of the 
brood-combs), been merely a conceit of some visionary 
projector. This might be harmless enough, were no effort 
made to impose such crudities upon an ignorant public, 
either in the shape pf a patented hive, or worse still, of an 



NATURAL HISTORY OF TEE HONKY-IiKM. 61 

unpatented hive, the pretended right to use which is 
fraudulently sold to the cheated purchaser.* 

Apiarians, unaware of the brevity of the bee's life, hrue 
) constructed huge " bee-palaces' 9 and large closets, 
vainly imagining that the bees would fill them, being una- 
ble to see any reason why a colony should not increase 
until it numbers its inhabitants by millions or billions. 
But as the bees can never at one time equal, still less 
exceed, the number which the queen is capable of pro- 
ducing in a season, these spacious dwellings have always 
an abundance of spare rooms. It seems strange that men 
can be thus deceived, when often in their own Apiary 
they have healthy stocks, which, though they have not 
swarmed for a year or more, are no more populous in 
the Spring, than those which have regularly parted with 
vigorous colonies. 

It is certain that the Creator has wisely set a limit to 
the increase of numbers in a single colony ; and I shall 
venture to assign a reason for this. Suppose he had given 
to the bee a length of life as great as that of the horse or 
the cow, or had made each queen capable of laying daily 
some hundreds of thousands of eggs ; or had given several 
hundred queens to each hive ; then a colony must have 
gone on increasing, until it became a scourge rather than 
a benefit to man. In the warm climates of which the bee 

* Hives which have never been patented have been extensively sold •* patent 
articles by men, who for years have been liable to prosecution for obtaining money 
under false T^etences. Others are disposed of, on tlio ground that tin- patent is 
still pending, when no application for a patent has ever been made, or has long 
igo been rejected. Often the patented part of a hive, befog a worthless :<»nceit, is 
carefully concealed, while much ingenuity is displayed, in exhibiting those fea- 
tures in the hive which any one has a right to use; and yet, which the vender, 
sometimes by implication, and sometimes by direct assertion, leads the purchaser 
to believe are essential parts of the patent. 

No one should ever purchase a " patent hive, 11 until he ascertains two things: 
1st, that there is really a patent on the invention ; and 2d, that the part patented 
is, in his opinion, worth to him the money asked for the right to n 



62 THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 

is a native, it would have established itself in some cavern 
or capacious cleft in the rocks, and would soon have 
become so powerful as to bid defiance to all attempts to 
appropriate the avails of its labors. 

It has already been stated that none, except the mother- 
wasps and hornets, survive the Winter. Had these in- 
sects, like the bee, been able to commence the season 
with the accumulated strength of a large colony, they 
would, long before its close, have proved an intolerable 
nuisance. If, on the contrary, the queen-bee had been 
compelled, solitary and alone, to lay the foundations of a 
new commonwealth, the honey-harvest would have disap 
peared long before she could become the parent of a 
numerous family. 

The process of rearing Queen-Bees will now be more 
particularly described. Early in the season, if a hive 
becomes very populous, the bees usually make prepara- 
tions for swarming. A number of royal cells are begun, 
being commonly constructed upon those edges of the 
combs (PL XIV., a, #, c, J), which are not attached to the 
sides of the hive. These cells somewhat resemble a small 
pea nut (PI. XIII., Figs. 49, 50), and are about an inch 
deep, and one-third of an inch in diameter : being very 
thick, they require much wax for their construction. They 
are seldom seen in a perfect state after the swarming 
season, as the bees, after the queen has hatched, cut them 
down to the shape of a small acorn-cup. (PI. XIV., c.) 
These queen-cells, while in progress, receive a very unu- 
sual amount of attention from the workers. There is 
scarcely a second in which a bee is not peeping into them ; 
and as fast as one is satisfied, another pops in her head to 
report progress, or increase the supply of royal jelly. 
Their importance to the community might easily be 






NATURAL HISTORY OF THE HONEt-BEK. 63 

inferred from their being the center of so much attrac- 
tion. 

While the other cells open sideways, the queen-cells 
always hang with their mouth downwards. Some Apia- 
rians think that this peculiar position affects, in some way, 
the development of the royal larvae ; while others, having 
ascertained that they are uninjured if placed in any other 
position, consider this deviation as among the inscrutable 
mysteries of the bee-hive. So it seemed to me, until con- 
vinced, by more careful observation, that they open down- 
wards simply to save room. The distance between the 
parallel ranges of comb in the hive is usually too small for 
the royal cells to open sideways, without interfering with 
the opposite cells. To economize space, the bees put 
them on the unoccupied edges of the comb, where there 
is plenty of room for such very large cells. 

The number of royal cells in a hive varies greatly ; 
sometimes there are only two or three, ordinarily not less 
than five ; and occasionally, more than a dozen. As it is 
not intended that the young queens should all be of the 
same age, the royal cells are not all begun at the same 
time. It is not fully settled how the eggs are deposited 
in these cells. In some few instances, I have thought that 
the bees transferred the eggs from common to queen-cells ; 
and this may be their general method of procedure. I 
shall hazard the conjecture, that, in a crowded state of the 
hive, the queen deposits her eggs in cells on the edges of 
the comb, some of which are afterwards changed by the 
workers into royal cells. Such is a queen's instinctive 
hatred to her own kind, that it seems improbable that she 
should be intrusted with even the initiatory steps for 
securing a race of successors. 

The young queens are much more largely supplied with 
food than the other larvae ; so that they seem to lie in a 



64 THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 

thick bed of jelly, a portion of which may usually bo 
found at the base of their cells, soon after they have hatched. 
Unlike the food of the other larvae, it has a slightly 
acid taste ; and when fresh, resembles starch ; when old, a 
light quince jelly. The bees, if confined to their hive and 
supplied with water, can secrete it from the honey and 
bee-bread stored in their combs. 

I submitted some royal jelly to Dr. Charles M. Wethe- 
rell, of Philadelphia ; an interesting account of his analy- 
sis may be found in the Report of the Proceedings of the 
Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences for July, 1852. 
He speaks of the substance as being a " truly bread-con- 
taining, albuminous compound." A comparison of its 
elements with the food of the drone and worker-larvae, 
might throw some light on subjects now involved in ob- 
scurity. 

The effects produced upon the royal larvae by their 
peculiar treatment are so wonderful, that they have usually 
been rejected as idle whims, by those who have neither 
been eye-witnesses to them, nor acquainted with the op- 
portunities enjoyed by others for accurate observation. 
They are not only contrary to all common analogies, but 
so marvellously strange and improbable, that many when 
asked to believe them, feel that an insult is offered to their 
common sense. The most important of these effects I 
shall briefly enumerate. 

1st. The peculiar mode in which the worm designed for 
a queen is treated, causes it to arrive at maturity almost 
one-third earlier than if it had been reared a worker. 
And yet, as it is to be much more fully developed, 
according to ordinary analogy, it should have had a slower 
growth. 

2d. Its organs of reproduction are completely developed, 
so that it can fulfill the office of a mother. 






NATURAL HISTORY OF THE HONEY-BEE. 65 



3d. Its size, shape, and color are greatly changed ; its 
lower jaws are shorter, its head rounder, and its abdomen 
without the receptacles for secreting wax ; its legs have 
neither brushes nor baskets, and its sting is more curved, 
and one-third longer (PI. XVIII.) than that of a worker. 

4th. Its instincts are entirely changed. Reared as a 
w r orker, it would have thrust out its sting at the least 
provocation ; whereas now, it may be pulled limb from 
limb without attempting to sting. As a worker, it would 
have treated a queen with the greatest consideration ; but 
now, if brought in contact with another queen, it seeks to 
destroy it as a rival. As a worker, it would frequently 
have left the hive, either for labor or exercise ; as a queen, 
it never leaves it after impregnation, except to accomjDany 
a new swarm. 

5th. The term of its life is remarkably lengthened. As 
a worker, it would not have lived more than six or seven 
months ; as a queen, it may live seven or eight times as 
long. All these wonders rest on the impregnable basis 
of demonstration, and instead of being witnessed only by 
a select few, may now, by the use of the movable-comb 
hive, be familiar sights to any bee-keeper who prefers an 
acquaintance with facts, to caviling and sneering at the 
labors of others.* 

* A brief extract from the celebrated Dr. Boerhaave's memoir of Swammerdam, 
should put to blush the arrogance of those superficial observers, who are too wise 
in their own conceit to avail themselves of the knowledge of others. 

"This treatise on Bees proved so fatiguing a performance, that Swammerdam 
never afterwards recovered even the appearance of his former health and vigor. 
He was almost continually engaged by day in making observations, and as con- 
stantly by night in recording them by drawings and suitable explanations. 

" His daily labor began at six in the morning, when the sun afforded him light 
enough to survey such minute objects; and from that hour till twelve, he continued 
without interruption, all the while exposed in the open air to the scorching heat 
of the sun, bareheaded, for fear of intercepting his sight, and his head in a manner 
dissolving into sweat under the irresistible ardors of that powerful luminary. And 
if he desisted at noon, it was only because the strength of his eyes was too much 



66 THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 

The process of rearing queens to meet some special 
emergency, is even more wonderful than the one already 
described. If the bees have worker-eggs, or worms not 
more than three days old, they make one large cell out 
of three, by nibbling away the partitions of two cells 
adjoining a third. Destroying the eggs or worms in two 
of these cells, they place before the occupant of the other, 
the usual food of the young queens ; and by enlarging its 
cell, give it ample space for development. As a security 
against failure, they usually start a number of queen-cells, 
although often the work on all, except a few, is soon dis- 
continued. 

In from eleven to fourteen days, they are in possession 
of a new queen, in all respects resembling one reared in 
the natural way; while the eggs in the adjoining cells, 
which have been developed as workers, are nearly a week 
longer in coming to maturity. 

The beautiful representation of comb, in Plate XVIII., is 
taken, with important alterations and additions of my 
own, from Cotton's " My Bee-Book," to which I am also 
indebted for the group of bees in the title-page. The 
royal cell (5), is a perfect queen-cell, from which the 
inmate has not yet emerged. The queen-cell (a), repre- 
sents the cap or lid as it often appears just after the young 
queen has hatched. The queen-cell (<#), which is open at 
the side, is one from which a young queen has been vio- 
lently abstracted ; the other (c), is one which the bees 
have nearly reduced to the acorn shape. It also resem- 

weakened by the extraordinary afflux of light, and the use of microscopes, to con- 
tinue any longer upon such small objects. 

" He often wished, the better to accomplish his vast, unlimited views, for a year 
of perpetual heat and light to perfect his inquiries ; with a polar night, to reap all 
the advantages of them by proper drawings and descriptions.'" 



NATURAL HISTORY OF THE HONEY-BEE. 67 

bles one only a few days old. On the face of the comb is 
a cell (?i), just begun for the artificial rearing of a queen, 
this being the usual position of cells built to meet some 
unexpected emergency. To bring the points illustrated 
into a compact compass, the cells are drawn smaller than 
the natural size. 

I shall give, in this connection, a description of an inter- 
esting experiment. 

A populous stock was removed, in the morning, to a 
. new place, and an empty hive put upon its stand. Thous- 
ands of workers which were ranging the fields, or which 
left the old hive after its removal, returned to the familiar 
spot. It was truly affecting to witness their grief and 
despair ; they flew in restless circles about the place where 
once stood their happy home, entering the empty hive 
continually, and expressing, in various ways, their lamen- 
tations over so cruel a bereavement. Towards evening, 
ceasing to take wing, they roamed in restless platoons, in 
and out of the hive, and over its surface, as if in search of 
some lost treasure. A small piece of brood-comb was 
then given to them, containing worker-eggs and worms. 
The effect produced by its introduction took place 
much quicker than can be described. Those which first 
touched it raised a peculiar note, and in a moment, the 
comb was covered with a dense mass of bees ; as they 
recognized, in this small piece of comb, the means of 
deliverance, (^spair gave place to hope, their restless 
motions and mournful voices ceased, and a cheerful hum 
proclaimed their delight. If some one should enter a 
building filled with thousands of persons tearing their 
hair, beating their breasts, and by piteous cries, as well as 
frantic gestures, giving vent to their despair, and could 
by a single word cause all these demonstrations of 
agony to give place to smiles and congratulations, the 



68 THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 

change would not be more instantaneous than that pro- 
duced when the bees received the brood-comb ! 

The Orientals call the honey-bee, "Deborah : She that 
speaketh." Would that this little insect might speak, in 
words more eloquent than those of man's device, to those 
who reject any of the doctrines of revealed religion, with 
the assertion that they are so improbable, as to labor 
under a fatal a priori objection. Do not all the steps in 
the development of a queen from a worker-egg, labor 
under the very same objection? and have they not, for 
this reason been always regarded, by many bee-keepers, 
as unworthy of belief ? If the favorite argument of infi- 
dels will not stand the test, when applied to the wonders 
of the bee-hive, is it entitled to serious weight, when, by 
objecting to religious truths, they arrogantly take to task 
the Infinite Jehovah for what He has been pleased to do 
or to teach ? With no' more latitude than is claimed by 
such objectors, it were easy to prove that a man is under 
no obligation to believe any of the wonders of the bee-hive, 
even although he is himself an intelligent eye-witness to 
their substantial truth. 



Kg. 20. 



Plats VII. 




COMB. 69 



CHAPTER IV. 

COMB. 

Wax is a natural secretion of bees, and may be called 
their oil or fat. When gorged with honey, or any liquid 
sweet, if they remain quietly clustered together, it is 
secreted in the shape of delicate scales, in small pouches 
on their abdomen. (PL XIII., Figs. 37, 38.) Soon after 
a swarm is hived, the bottom-board will usually be covered 
with these scales. The bees seem to loosen them from 
their bodies by violently shaking themselves as they stand 
upon the combs. 

" Thus, filtered through yon fluttered folded mail, 
Clings the cooled wax, and hardens to a scale. 
Swift, at the well-known call, the ready train 
(For not a buz boon Nature breathes in vain) 
Spring to each falling flake, and bear along 
Their glossy burdens to the builder throng. 
These with sharp sickle, or with sharper tooth, 
Pare each excrescence, and each angle smoothe, 
Till now, in finish'd pride, two radiant rows 
Of snow white cells one mutual base disclose. 
Six shining panels gird each polish' d round ; 
The door's fine rim, with waxen fillet bound ; 
While walls so thin, with sister walls combined, 
Weak in themselves, a sure dependence find." 

Evans. 

Most Apiarians before Huber's time supposed that wax 
was made from bee-bread, either in a crude or digested 
state. Confining a new swarm of bees to a hive in a dark 
and cool room, at the end of five days he found 
several beautiful white combs in their tenement; these 



70 THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 

being taken from them, and the bees supplied with honey 
and water, new combs were again constructed. Seven 
times in succession their combs were removed, and were 
in each instance replaced, the bees being all the time pre- 
vented from ranging the fields to supply themselves with 
bee-bread. By subsequent experiments, he proved that 
sugar-syrup answered the same end with honey. Giving 
an imprisoned swarm an abundance of fruit and bee-bread, 
he found that they subsisted on the fruit, but refused to 
touch the pollen ; and that no combs were constructed, 
nor any wax-scales formed in their pouches. 

Notwithstanding Huber's extreme caution and unwearied 
patience in conducting these experiments, he did not dis- 
cover the whole truth on this important subject. Though 
he demonstrated that bees can construct comb from honey 
or sugar, without the aid of bee-bread, and that they can- 
not make it from bee-bread, without honey or sugar, he 
did not prove that when permanently deprived of bee- 
bread they can continue to work in wax, or if they can, 
that the pollen does not aid in its elaboration. 

Some bee-bread is always found in the stomach of wax- 
producing workers, and they never build comb so rapidly 
as when they have free access to this article. It must, 
therefore, either furnish some of the elements of wax, or 
in some way assist the bee in producing it. Further 
investigations are necessary, before we can arrive at per- 
fectly accurate results. Confident assertions are easily 
made, requiring only a little breath, or a few drops of ink ; 
and those who like them best have often the profoundest 
contempt for observation and experiment. To establish 
any controverted truth on the solid foundation of demon- 
strated facts, usually requires severe and protracted labor. 

Honey and sugar contain by weight about eight pounds 
of oxygen to one of carbon and hydrogen. When con- 



COMB. 71 

verted into wax, these proportions are remarkably changed, 
the wax containing only one pound of oxygen to more 
than sixteen of hydrogen and carbon. Now as oxygen 
is the grand supporter of animal heat, the large quantity 
consumed in secreting wax aids in generating that extra- 
ordinary heat which always accompanies comb-building, 
and which enables the bees to mould the softened wax 
into such exquisitely delicate and beautiful forms.* This 
interesting instance of adaptation, so clearly pointing to 
the Divine Wisdom, seems to have escaped the notice of 
previous writers. 

Careful experiments prove that from thirteen to twenty 
pounds of honey are required to make a single pound of 
wax. As wax is an animal oil, secreted chiefly from honey, 
this fact will not appear incredible to those who are aware 
how many pounds of corn or hay must be fed to cattle to 
have them gain a single pound of fat. 

Many bee-keepers are unaware of the value of empty 
comb. Suppose honey to be worth only fifteen cents per 
pound, and comb, when rendered into wax, to be worth 
thirty cents, the Apiarian who melts a pound of comb 
loses largely by the operation, even without estimating 
the time his bees have consumed in building it. It should, 
therefore, be considered a first principle in bee-culture 
never to melt good combs. A strong stock of bees, in the 
height of the honey-harvest, will fill them with very 
great rapidity. 

Unfortunately, in the ordinary hives but little use can 
be made of empty comb, unless it is new, and can be put 
into the surplus honey-boxes ; but by the use of bars, or 
movable frames, every good piece of worker-comb may be 
given to the bees. 

* According to Dr. Donhoff, the thickness of the sides of a cell in a new comb 
is only the one hundred and eightieth part of an inch I 



72 THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 

When new, it may be easily attached to frames, or spare 
honey-receptacles, by dipping the edge into melted wax, 
and firmly holding it in place until it hardens ; if it is 
old, or the pieces large and full of bee-bread, a mixture 
of melted wax and resin will secure a firmer adhesion. 
When comb is put into tumblers, or small receptacles, it 
may be simply crowded in, so as to keep its place until 
fastened by the bees. As bees like " a good start in life," 
they prefer receptacles which contain some empty comb. 
All suitable drone-comb should be put into such recepta- 
cles, instead of being allowed to remain in the breeding 
apartment of the hive. 

No one, to my knowledge, has ever attempted to imi- 
tate the delicate mechanism of the bee so closely, as to 
construct artificial combs for the ordinary uses of the 
hive. If store-combs could be made of gutta-percha, they 
might be emptied of their contents, and returned to the 
hive. 

In the Summer of 1854, I ascertained that bees will, 
under some circumstances, use fine shavings of wax to build 
new comb. If this discovery can be made serviceable 
for practical purposes, it will both facilitate the cheap and 
rapid multiplication of colonies, and enable the bees to 
amass unusual quantities of honey. One pound of bees- 
wax might be made to store nearly twenty pounds of 
honey ; and the bee-keeper would gain the difference in 
value between one pound of wax, and the honey which 
bees consume in making a pound of comb. At times 
when no honey can be procured from the blossoms, strong 
stocks might be profitably employed in building spare 
comb, to strengthen feeble stocks, or for any other pur 
pose. 

The building of comb is usually carried on with the 
greatest activity by night, while the honey is gathered by 



Fig. 21. 



Plate VIII. 




COMB. 73 

day.* Thus no time is lost. When the weather is too 
forbidding for out-door work, the combs are most rapidly 
constructed, the labor being vigorously carried on both 
by day and by night. On the return of a fair day, the 
bees, having plenty of room for its storage, gather unusual 
supplies Thus, by their wise economy, they often lose 
no time, even if confined for several days to their hive. 

" How doth the little busy bee improve each shining hour !" 

The poet might, with equal truth, have described her 
as improving the gloomy days and dark nights in her use- 
ful labors. 

It is an interesting fact, which seems hitherto to have 
escaped notice, that honey-gathering and comb-building 
go on simultaneously ; so that when one stops, the other 
ceases also. As soon as the honey-harvest begins to fail, 
so that consumption is in advance of production, the bees 
cease to build new comb, even although large portions of 
their hive are unfilled. When honey no longer abounds 
in the fields, it is wisely ordered that they should not con- 
sume, in comb-building, the treasures which may be need- 
ed for Winter use. What safer rule could have been 
given them ? 

As wax is a bad conductor, it can be more easily work- 
ed when warmed by the animal heat of the bees, than if it 
parted with its heat too readily. By this property, the 
combs aid in keeping the bees warm, and there is less 
risk of their cracking with frost, or of the honey candying 
in the cells. If wax were a good conductor of heat, the 
combs would often be icy cold, moisture would condense 
and freeze upon them, and they could not fulfill all their 
required ends. 

* On very clear moonlight nights, I have known bees to gather honey from the 
tulip tree (TAriodtniiron tulip/era). 

4 



74 THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 

The size of the cells in which workers are reared never 
varies ; the same may substantially be said of the drone- 
cells, which are much larger; those in which honey is 
stored vary greatly in depth, while in diameter they are 
of all sizes, from that of worker to that of drone-cells. As 
five worker, or four drone-cells, will measure about one 
linear inch, a square inch of comb will contain, on each 
side, twenty-five worker, or sixteen drone-cells. 

As bees in building their cells, cannot pass immediately 
from one size to another, they display an admirable saga- 
city in making the transition by a set of irregular inter- 
mediate cells. Plate XV. (Fig. 48), exhibits an accurate 
and beautiful representation of comb, drawn for this work 
from nature, by M. M. Tidd, and engraved by D. T. 
Smith, both of Boston, Mass. The cells are of the size of 
nature. The large ones are drone-cells, and the small ones, 
worker-cells. The irregular, five-sided cells between them, 
show how bees pass from one size to another. 

The cells of bees are found to fulfill perfectly the most 
subtle conditions of an intricate mathematical problem. 
Let it be required to find what shape a given quantity of 
matter must take, in order to have the greatest capacity 
and strength, occupying, at the same time, the least space, 
and consuming the least labor in its construction. When 
this problem is solved by the most refined mathematical 
processes, the answer is the hexagonal or six-sided cell 
of the honey-bee, with its three four-sided figures at the 
base! 

The shape of these figures cannot be altered ever so lit- 
tle, except for the worse. In addition to the desirable 
qualities already enumerated, they serve as nurseries for 
rearing the young, and as small air-tight vessels for pre- 
serving the honey from souring or candying. Every pru- 
dent housewife who carefully stores her preserves in 



COMB. 75 

receptacles excluding the air, can appreciate the value of 
such an arrangement. 

" There are only three possible figures of the cells," says 
Dr. Reid, " which can make them all equal and similar, 
without any useless spaces between them. These are the 
equilateral triangle, the square, and the regular hexagon. 
It is well known to mathematicians, that there is not a 
fourth way possible in which a plane may be cut into lit- 
tle spaces that shall be equal, similar, and regular, with- 
out leaving any interstices." 

An equilateral triangle would have made a very uncom- 
fortable tenement for an insect with a round body ; and a 
square cell would have been but little better. A circle 
seems to be the best shape for the development of the 
larvae ; but such a figure would have caused a needless 
sacrifice of space, materials, and strength ; while the honey, 
which adheres so admirably to the many angles of the 
six-sided cell, would have been much more liable to run 
out. The body of the immature insect, as it undergoes 
its changes, is charged with a superabundance of moisture, 
which passes off through the reticulated cover of its 
cell ; may not a hexagon, therefore, while approaching so 
nearly to the shape of a circle, as not to incommode the 
young bee, furnish, in its six corners, the necessary vacan- 
cies for a more thorough ventilation ? 

Is it credible that these little insects can unite so many 
requisites in the construction of their cells, either by chance, 
or because they are profoundly versed in the most intricate 
mathematics? Are we not compelled to acknowledge 
that the mathematics by which they construct a shape so 
complicated, and yet the only one which can unite so many 
desirable requirements, must be referred to the Creator, 
and not to his puny creature ? To an intelligent and can- 



76 THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 

did mind, the smallest piece of honey-comb is a perfect 
demonstration that there is a " Great First Cause." 

" On books deep poring, ye pale sons of toil, 
Who waste in studious trance the midnight oil, 
Say, can ye emulate, with all your rules, 
Drawn or from Grecian or from Gothic schools, 
This artless frame ? Instinct her simple guide, 
A heaven-taught insect baffles all your pride. 
Not all yon marshall'd orbs, that ride so high, 
Proclaim more loud a present Deity, 
Than the nice symmetry of these small cells, 
Where on each angle genuine science dwells." 

EVAN3. 



CHAPTER V. 

PROPOLIS. 

This substance is obtained by the bees from the resinous 
buds and limbs of trees : the different varieties of poplar 
yield a rich supply. When first gathered, it is usually of 
a bright golden color, and so adhesive that the bees never 
deposit it in cells, but apply it at once to the purposes for 
which they procured it. If a bee is caught while bringing 
in a load, it will be found to adhere very firmly to her 



" Huber planted in Spring some branches of the wild 
poplar, before the leaves were developed, and placed 
them in pots near his Apiary ; the bees alighted on them, 
separated the folds of the large buds with their for- 
ceps, extracted the varnish in threads, and loaded with it, 
first one thigh and then the other ; for they convey it like 
pollen, transferring it by the first pair of legs to the 



PROPOLIS. 



77 



second, by which it is lodged in the hollow of the third." 
I have seen them thus remove the warm propolis from 
old bottom-boards standing in the sun. 

Propolis is frequently gathered from the alder, horse- 
chestnut, birch, and willow; and as some think, from 
pines and other trees of the fir kind. Bees will often 
enter varnishing shops, attracted evidently by their smell; 
and in the vicinity of Matamoras, Mexico, where propolis 
seems to be scarce, I saw them using green paint from win- 
dow-blinds, and pitch from the rigging of a vessel. ^ Bevan 
mentions the fact of their carrying off a composition of 
wax and turpentine from trees to which it had been applied. 
Dr. Evans says he has seen them collect the balsamic 
varnish which coats the young blossom-buds of the holly- 
hock, and has known them rest at least ten minutes on 
the same bud, moulding the balsam with their fore feet, 
and transferring it to the hinder legs, as described by 

Huber. 

" With merry hum the Willow's copse they scale, 
The Fir's dark pyramid, or Poplar pale ; 
Scoop from the Alder's leaf its oozy flood, 
Or strip the Chestnut's resin-coated bud ; 
Skim the light tear that tips Narcissus' ray, 
Or round the Hollyhock's hoar fragrance play ; 
Then waft their nut-brown loads exulting home, 
That form a fret-work for the future comb ; 
Caulk every chink where rushing winds may roar, 
And seal their circling ramparts to the floor." 

Evans. 

A mixture of wax and propolis being much more 
adhesive than wax alone, serves admirably to strengthen 
the attachments of the combs to the top and sides of the 
hive. If the combs are not filled with honey or brood 
soon after they are built, they are varnished with a delicate 
coating of propolis, which adds greatly to their strength ; 



78 THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 

but as this natural varnish impairs their snowy whiteness, 
the bees ought not to be allowed access to combs in the 
surplus honey-receptacles, except when actively engaged 
in storing them with honey. 

Bees make a very liberal use of propolis to fill any 
crevices about their premises ; and as the natural summer- 
heat of the hive keeps it soft, the bee-moth selects it as a 
place of deposit for her eggs. Hives ought, therefore, to 
be made of lumber entirely free from cracks. The corners, 
which the bees usually fill with propolis, may have a melted 
mixture run into them, consisting of three parts of resin 
and one of bees-w^ax ; this remaining hard during the 
hottest weather, will bid defiance to the moth. 

As bees find it difficult to gather propolis, and equally 
so to work so sticky a material, they should be saved all 
unnecessary labor in amassing it. To men, time is money ; 
to bees, it is honey ; and all the arrangements of the hive 
should be such as to economize it to the utmost. 

Propolis is sometimes put to a very curious use by the 
bees. " A snail,* having crept into one of M. Reaumur's 
hives early in the morning, after crawling about for some 
time, adhered, by means of its own slime, to one of the 
glass panes. The bees having discovered the snail, sur- 
rounded it, and formed a border of propolis round the 
verge of its shell, and fastened it so securely to the glass 
that it became immovable. 

* Forever closed the impenetrable door ; 
It naught avails that in its torpid veins 
Year after year, life's loitering spark remains.' 

Evans. 

" Maraldi, another eminent Apiarian, states that a snail 
without a shell having entered one of his hives, the bees, 
as soon as they observed it, stung it to death ; after which, 

* Bevan. 



PROPOLIS. 



79 



being unable to dislodge it, they covered it all over with 
an impervious coat of propolis. 

1 For soon in fearless ire, their wonder lost, 
Spring fiercely from the comb the indignant host, 
Lay the pierced monster breathless on the ground, 
And clap in joy their victor pinions round: 
While all in vain concurrent numbers strive 
To heave the slime-girt giant from the hive- 
Sure not alone by force instinctive swayed, 
But blest with reason's soul-directing aid, 
Alike in man or bee, they haste to pour, 
Thick, hard'ning as it falls, the flaky shower; 
Embalmed in shroud of glue the mummy lies, 
No worms invade, no foul miasmas rise.' 

Evans. 

" In these instances, who can withhold his admiration 
of the ingenuity and judgment of the bees ? In the first 
case, a troublesome creature gained admission to the hive, 
which, from its unwieldiness, they could not remove, and 
which, from the impenetrability of its shell, they could not 
destroy; here, then, their only resource was to deprive it 
of locomotion, and to obviate putrefaction ; both which 
objects they accomplished most skillfully and securely, 
and, as is usual with these sagacious creatures, at the least 
possible expense of labor and materials. They applied 
their cement where alone it was required— round the 
verge of the shell. In the latter case, to obviate the evil 
of decay, by the total exclusion of air, they were obliged 
to be more lavish in the use of their embalming material, 
and to case over the 'slime-girt giant, 5 so as to guard 
themselves from his noisome smell. What means more 
effectual could human wisdom have devised, under similar 
circumstances ?" 

When any member of a family dies, the bees are be- 
lieved by many to know what has happened ; and some 



80 THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 

are superstitious enough to put the hives in mourning, to 
pacify their sorrowing occupants ; imagining that, unless 
this is done, the bees will never afterwards prosper ! It 
has frequently been asserted, that they sometimes take 
their loss so much to heart, as to alight upon the coffin 
whenever it is exposed. A clergyman told me, that he 
attended a funeral, where, as soon as the coffin was 
brought from the house, the bees gathered upon it so as 
to excite much alarm. Some years after this occurrence, 
being engaged in varnishing a table, the bees alighted 
upon it in such numbers, as to convince him, that love of 
varnish, rather than sorrow or respect for the dead, was 
the occasion of their conduct at the funeral. How many 
superstitions, believed even by intelligent persons, might 
be as easily explained, if it were possible to ascertain as 
fully all the facts connected with them ! 



CHAPTER VI. 

POLLEN, OR " BEE-BREAD." 

Pollen is gathered by the bees from blossoms, and is 
indispensable to the nourishment of their young — repeat- 
ed experiments having proved that brood cannot be raised 
without it. It is very rich in the nitrogenous sub- 
stances which are not contained in honey, and without 
which ample nourishment could not be furnished for the 
development of the growing bee. Dr. Hunter, on dissecting 
some immature bees, found that their stomachs contained 
pollen, but not a particle of honey. 

We are indebted to Huber for the discovery, that pol- 
len is the principal food of the young bees. As large 



POLLEN. 81 

supplies were often found in hives whose inmates had 
starved, it was evident that, without honey, it could not 
support the mature bees ; and this led former observers 
to conclude that it served for the building of comb. Hu- 
ber, after demonstrating that wax can be secreted from 
an entirely different substance, soon ascertained that pollen 
was used for the nourishment of the embryo bees. Con- 
fining some bees to their hive without any pollen, he sup- 
plied them with honey, eggs, and larvae. In a short time, 
the young all perished. A fresh supply of brood being 
given to them, with an ample allowance of pollen, the 
development of the larvse proceeded in the natural way. 

I had an excellent opportunity of testing the value of 
this substance, in the backward Spring of 1852. On the 
5th of February, I opened a hive containing an artificial 
swarm of the previous year, and found many of the cells 
filled with brood. The combs being examined on the 
23d, contained neither eggs, brood, nor bee-bread; and 
the colony was supplied with pollen from another hive ; 
the next day, a large number of eggs were found in the 
cells. When this supply was exhausted, laying again 
ceased, and was only resumed when more was furnished. 
During the time of these experiments, the weather was so 
unpromising, that the bees were unable to leave the hive. 

Dzierzon is of opinion that bees can furnish food for 
their young, without pollen ; although he admits that they 
can do it only for a short time, and at a great expense of 
vital energy ; just as the strength of an animal nursing its 
young is rapidly reduced, if, for want of proper food, the 
very substance of the mother's body must be converted 
into milk. The experiment just described does not cor 
roborate this theory, but confirms Huber's view, that 
pollen is indispensable to the development of brood. 

Gundelach, an able German Apiarian, says that if a 

4* 



82 THE HIVE AND H0NEY-BKE. 

colony with a fertile queen be confined to an empty hive, 
and supplied with honey, comb will be rapidly built, and 
the cells filled with eggs, which in due time will be 
hatched ; but the worms will all die within twenty-foui 
hours. 

Some Apiarians believe that bees with an abundance 
of both pollen and honey, will secrete wax much faster 
than when supplied with honey alone ; and that its secre- 
tion, without pollen, severely taxes their strength. 

In September, 1856, I put a very large colony of bees 
into a new hive, to determine some points on which I was 
then experimenting. The weather was fine, and they 
gathered pollen, and built comb very rapidly ; still, for 
ten days, the queen-bee deposited no eggs in the cells. 
During all that time, these bees stored very little pollen in 
the combs. One of the days being so stormy that they 
could not go abroad, they were supplied with rye flour 
(see p. 84), none of which, although very greedily appro- 
priated, could be found in the cells. During all this 
time, as there was no brood to be fed, the pollen must 
have been used by the bees either for nourishment, or to 
assist them in secreting wax ; or, as I believe, for both 
these purposes. 

Bees prefer to gather fresh bee-bread, even when there 
are large accumulations of old stores in the cells. With 
hives giving the control of the combs, the surplus of old 
colonies may be made to supply the deficiency of young 
ones ; the latter, in Spring, being often destitute of this 
important article. 

If honey and pollen can both be obtained from the same 
blossom, the industrious inseot usually gathers a load of 
each. To prove this, let a few pollen-gatherers be dis- 
sected when honey is plenty; and their honey-sacs will 
ordinarily be full. 



POLLEN. 83 

The mode of gathering pollen is very interesting. The 
body of the bee appears to the naked eye to be covered 
with fine hairs, to which, when she alights on a flower, the 
farina adheres. With her legs, she brushes it from her 
body, and packs it in the hollows, or baskets^ one of which 
is on each of her thighs ; these baskets are surrounded by 
stouter hairs, which hold the load in its place. If from 
any cause the pollen cannot be readily gathered in balls, 
the bee will often roll herself in it, and return, all dusted 
over, to her hive. 

When the bee brings home a load of pollen, she often 
shakes her body in a singular manner, to attract the atten- 
tion of other bees, who nibble from her thighs what 
they want for immediate use; the rest she stores away 
for future need, by inserting her body in a cell and brush- 
ing it from her legs ; it is then carefully packed down, 
being often covered with honey, and sealed over wdth 
wax. Pollen is very rarely deposited in any except 
worker-cells. 

Aristotle observed, that a bee, in gathering pollen, con- 
fines herself to the kind of blossom on which she begins, 
even if it is not so abundant as some others ; thus a ball 
of this substance taken from her thigh, is found to be of 
a uniform color throughout ; the load of one insect being 
yellow, of another, red, and of a third, brown ; the color 
varying with that of the plant from which the supply was 
obtained. They may prefer to gather a load from a single 
species of plant, because the pollen of different kinds does 
not pack so well together. Bees, by carrying the pollen 
or fertilizing substance of plants, on their bodies, from 
blossom to blossom, contribute essentially to their impreg- 
nation. 

Though the importance of pollen has long been known, 
it is only of late that any attempts have been made to 



84 THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 

furnish a substitute. Dzierzon, early in the Spring, 
observed his bees bringing rye-meal to their hives from a 
neighboring mill, before they could procure any pollen 
from natural supplies. The hint was not lost ; and it is now 
a common practice in Europe, where bee-keeping is exten- 
sively carried on, to supply the bees early in the season 
with this article. Shallow troughs are set in front of the 
Apiaries, filled about two inches deep with finely ground, 
dry, unbolted rye-meal Thousands of bees, when the 
v/eather is favorable, resort eagerly to them, and rolling 
themselves in the meal, return heavily laden to their hives. 
In fine, mild weather, they labor at this work with great 
industry ; preferring the meal to the old pollen stored in 
their combs. They thus breed early, and rapidly recruit 
their numbers. The feeding is continued till, the blos- 
soms furnishing a preferable article, they cease to carry 
off the meal. The average consumption of each colony is 
about two pounds. 

Mr. F. Sontag, a German Apiarian, says, that in the 
Spring of 1853, he fed one of his colonies with rye-meal, 
placed in the hive in an old comb; continuing -the supply 
till they could procure fresh pollen abroad. This colony 
produced four strong swarms that Spring, and an adjoin- 
ing stock not supplied with the meal, only one weak 
swarm. 

Another German bee-keeper says, he has used wheat 
flour with very good results ; the bees forsaking the 
honey furnished them, and engaging actively in carrying 
in the flour, which was placed about twenty paces in 
front of their hives. 

The construction of my hives permits the flour to be 
easily placed where the bees can get it, without losing 
time in going abroad, or suffering for the want of it, when 
the weather confines them at home. 



POLLEN. 85 

The discovery of this substitute removes a very serious 
obstacle to the culture of bees. In many districts, there 
is for a short time such an abundant supply of honey, that 
almost any number of strong colonies will, in a good sea- 
son, lay up enough for themselves, and a large surplus 
for their owners. In many of these districts, however, the 
supply of pollen is often quite insufficient, and in Spring, 
the swarms of the previous year are so destitute, that unless 
the season is early, the production of brood is seriously 
checked, and the colony cannot avail itself properly of the 
superabundant harvest of honey. 

While the honey-bee is regarded by the best informed 
horticulturists as a friend, a strong prejudice has been 
excited against it by many fruit-growers in this country ; 
and in some communities, a man who keeps bees, is con- 
sidered as bad a neighbor, as one who allows his poultry 
to despoil the gardens of others. Even the warmest 
friends of the " busy bee," may be heard lamenting its 
propensity to banquet on their beautiful peaches and pears, 
and choicest grapes and plums. 

In conversation with a gentleman, I once assigned three 
reasons, why the bees could not inflict any extensive 
injury upon his grapes. 1st, that as the Creator appears 
to have intended both the honey-bee and fruit for the 
comfort of man, it was difficult to conceive that He would 
have made one the natural enemy of the other. 2d, that 
as the supplies of honey from the blossoms had entirely 
failed, the season (1854) being exceedingly dry, if the 
numerous colonies in his vicinity had been able to help 
themselves to his sound grapes, they would have entirely 
. devoured the fruit of his vines. 3d, that the jaws of the 
bee, being adapted chiefly to the manipulation of wax, 
were too feeble to enable it readily to puncture the skin 
even of his most delicate grapes. 



86 THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 

In reply to these arguments, being invited to go to his 
vines, and see the depredators in the very act, the result 
justified my anticipations. Though many bees were seen 
banqueting on grapes, not one was doing any mischief to 
the sound fruit. Grapes which were bruised on the vines, 
or lying on the ground, and the moist stems, from which 
grapes had recently been plucked, were covered with 
bees ; while other bees were observed to alight upon 
bunches, which, when found by careful inspection to be 
sound, they left with evident disappointment. 

Wasps and hornets, which secrete no wax, being furnish- 
ed with strong, saw-like jaws, for cutting the woody fibre 
with which they build their combs, can easily penetrate 
the skin of the toughest fruits. While the bees, therefore, 
appeared to be comparatively innocent, multitudes of these 
depredators were seen helping themselves to the best of 
the grapes. Occasionally, a bee would presume to alight 
upon a bunch where one of these pests was operating for 
his own benefit, when the latter would turn and " show 
fight," much after the fashion of a snarling dog, molested 
by another of his species, while daintily discussing his 
own private bone. 

After the mischief has been begun by other insects, or 
wherever a crack, or a spot of decay is seen, the honey- 
bee hastens to help itself, on the principle of " gathering 
up the fragments, that nothing may be lost." In this 
way, they undoubtedly do some mischief; but before war 
is declared against them, let every fruit-grower inquire if, 
on the whole, they are not far more useful than injurious. 
As bees carry on their bodies the pollen, or fertilizing 
substance, they aid most powerfully in the impregnation 
of plants, while prying into the blossoms in search of 
honey or bee-bread. In genial seasons, fruit will often set 
abundantly, even if no bees are kept in its vicinity ; but 



POLLEN. 87 

many Springs are so unpropitious, that often during the 
critical period of blossoming, the sun shines for only a few 
hours, so that those only can reasonably expect a remu- 
nerating crop whose trees are all murmuring with the 
pleasant hum of bees. 

A large fruit-grower told me that his cherries were a 
very uncertain crop, a cold north-east storm frequently 
prevailing when they were in blossom. He had noticed, 
that if the sun shone only for a couple of hours, the bees 
secured him a crop. 

If the horticulturists who regard the bee as an enemy, 
could exterminate the race, they would act with as little 
wisdom as those who attempt to banish from their inhos- 
pitable premises every insectiverous bird, which helps 
itself to a small part of the abundance it has aided in 
producing. By making judicious efforts early in the 
Spring, to entrap the mother-wasps and hornets, which 
alone survive the Winter, an effectual blow may be 
struck at some of the worst pests of the orchard and gar- 
den. In Europe, those engaged extensively in the culti- 
vation of fruit, often pay a small sum in the Spring for all 
wasps and hornets destroyed in their vicinity. 

Fig. 62 (PI. XIIL), shows the magnified head of a 
Mexican Honey-Hornet (p. 58). Fig. 63 shows the mag- 
nified head of the Honey-Bee. Fig. 64 shows the jaws 
of this Hornet, highly magnified. Fig. 65 shows the 
jaws of the Honey-Bee, highly magnified. A glance at 
these figures is enough to convince any intelligent horti- 
culturist of the truth of Aristotle's remark — made more 
than two thousand years ago — that " bees hurt no kinds 
of fruit, but wasps and hornets are very destructive to 
them." 



88 THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 



CHAPTER VII. 

VENTILATION OF THE BEE-HIVE. 

If a populous stock is examined on a warm day, a num- 
ber of bees may be seen standing upon the alighting- 
board, with their heads turned towards the entrance of 
the hive, their abdomens slightly elevated, and their wings 
in such rapid motion, that they are almost as indistinct as 
the spokes of a wheel, in swift rotation On its axis. A 
brisk current of air may be felt proceeding from the hive ; 
and if a small piece of down be suspended at its entrance, 
by a thread, it will be blown out from one part and 
drawn in at another. Why are these bees so deeply ab- 
sorbed in their fanning occupation, that they pay no atten- 
tion to the busy numbers constantly crowding in and out 
of the hive ? and what is the meaning of this double cur- 
rent of air ? To Huber, we owe the satisfactory explana- 
tion of these curious phenomena. The bees thus singu- 
larly plying their rapid wings, are ventilating the hive ; 
and this double current is caused by pure air rushing in, 
to supply the place of the foul air which is forced out. 
By a series of beautiful experiments, Huber ascertained 
that the air of a crowded hive is almost as pure as the sur- 
rounding atmosphere. Now, as the entrance to such a 
hive is often very small, the air within cannot be renewed, 
without resort to artificial means. If a lamp is put into a 
close vessel, with only one small orifice, it will soon ex- 
haust the oxygen, and cease to burn. If another small 
orifice is made, the same result wall follow; but if a 
current of air is by some device drawn ont from one open- 



Fig. 22. 



Plate IX. 




VENTILATION. 89 

ing, an equal current will force its way into the other, and 
the lamp will burn until the oil is exhausted. 

It is on this principle of maintaining a double current 
by artificial rneans^ that bees ventilate their crowded 
habitations. A file of ventilating bees stands inside and 
outside of theJiive, each with head turned to its entrance, 
and while, by the rapid fanning of their " many twinkling" 
wings, a brisk current of air is blown out of the hive, an 
equal current is drawn in. As this important office de- 
mands unusual physical exertion, the exhausted laborers 
are, from time to time, relieved by fresh detachments. If 
the interior of the hive permits inspection, many ventila- 
tors will be found scattered through it, in very hot weath- 
er, all busily engaged in their laborious employment. If 
its entrance is contracted, speedy accessions will be made 
to their numbers, both inside and outside of the hive ; and 
if it is closed entirely, the heat and impurity quickly in- 
creasing, the whole colony will attempt to renew the air 
by rapidly vibrating their wings, and in a short time, if 
unrelieved, will die of suffocation. 

Careful experiments show that pure air is necessary 
not only for the respiration of the mature bees, but for 
hatching the eggs, and developing the larvae ; a fine net- 
ting of air-vessels enveloping the eggs, and the cells of the 
larvae being closed with a covering filled with air-holes. 

In Winter, if bees are kept in a dark place, which is 
neither too warm nor too cold, they are almost dormant, 
and require very little air ; but even under such circum- 
stances, they cannot live entirely without it ; and if they 
are excited by atmospheric changes, or hi any way dis- 
turbed, a loud humming may be heard in the interior of 
their hives, and they need almost as much air as in warm 
weather. 

If bees are greatly disturbed, it will be unsafe, espe- 



90 THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 

cially in warm weather, to confine them, unless they have a 
very free admission of air ; and even then, unless it is ad- 
mitted above, as well as below the mass of bees, the ven- 
tilators may become clogged with dead bees, and the col- 
ony perish. Bees under close confinement become exces- 
sively heated, and their combs are often melted ; if damp- 
ness is added to the injurious influence of bad air, they 
become diseased ; and large numbers, if not the whole 
colony, may perish from dysentery. Is it not under pre- 
cisely such circumstances that cholera and dysentery prove 
most fatal to human beings ? the filthy, damp, and unven- 
tilated abodes of the abject poor, becoming perfect lazar- 
houses to their wretched inmates. 

I have several times examined the bees of new swarms 
which were brought to my Apiary, so closely confined, that 
they had dk»d of suffocation. In each instance, their bodies 
were distended with a yellow and noisome substance, as 
though they had perished from dysentery. A few were 
still alive, and although the colony had been shut up only 
a few hours, the bodies of both the living and the dead 
were filled with this same disgusting fluid, instead of the 
honey they had when they swarmed. 

In a medical point of view, these facts are highly inter- 
esting ; showing as they do, under what circumstances, 
and how speedily, diseases may be produced resembling 
dysentery or cholera. 

In very hot weather, if thin hives are exposed to the 
sun's direct rays, the bees are excessively annoyed by the 
intense heat, and have recourse to the most powerful ven- 
tilation, not merely to keep the air of the hive pure, but 
to lower its temperature. 

Bees, in such weather, often leave, almost in a body, 
the interior of the hive, and cluster on the outside, not 
merely to escape the close heat within, but to guard their 



I 



VENTILATION. 91 



combs against the danger of being dissolved. At such 
times, they are particularly careful not to cluster on new 
combs containing sealed honey, which, from not being lined 
with cocoons, and from the extra amount of wax used for 
their covers, melt more readily than the breeding-cells. 

Apiarians have noticed that bees often leave their 
honey-cells almost bare, as soon as they are sealed ; but it 
seems to have escaped their observation, that this is abso- 
lutely necessary in very hot w^eather. In cool weather, 
they may frequently be found clustered among the sealed 
honey-combs, because there is then no danger of their 
melting. 

Few things are so well fitted to impress the mind with 
their admirable sagacity, as the truly scientific device by 
which they ventilate their dwellings. In this important 
matter, the bee is immensely in advance of the great mass 
of those who are called rational beings. It has, to be 
sure, no ability to decide, from an elaborate analysis of the 
chemical constituents of the atmosphere, how large a pro- 
portion of oxygen is essential to the support of life, and 
how rapidly the process of breathing converts it into a 
deadly poison : it cannot, like Liebig, demonstrate that 
God, by setting the animal and the vegetable world, the 
one over against the other, has provided that the atmos- 
phere shall, through all ages, be as pure as when it first 
came from His creating hand. But shame upon us ! that 
with all our boasted intelligence, most of us live as though 
pure air was of little or no importance ; while the bee 
ventilates with a philosophical precision that should put to 
the blush our criminal neglect. 

Is it said that ventilation, in our case, cannot be had 
without effort? can it then be had for nothing, by the 
industrious bees ? Those ranks of bees, so indefatigably 
plying their busy wings, are not engaged in idle amuse- 



92 THE KIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 

merit; nor might they, as some shallow utilitarian may 
imagine, be "better employed in gathering honey, or 
superintending some other department in the economy of 
the hive. At great expense of time and labor, they are 
supplying the rest of the colony with the pure air so con- 
ducive to their health and prosperity. 

Impure air, one would think, is bad enough ; but all 
its inherent vileness is stimulated to still greater activ- 
ity by air-tight, or rather lung-tight stoves,* which can 
economize fuel only by squandering health and endan- 
gering life. Not only our private houses, but all our 
places of public assemblage, are either unprovided with 
any means of ventilation, or to a great extent, supplied 
with those so deficient, that they only 

" Keep the word of promise to our ear, 
To break it to our hope." 

That ultimate degeneracy must inevitably follow such 
gross neglect of the laws of health, cannot be doubted ; 
and those who imagine that the physical stamina of a 
people may be undermined, and their intellectual, moral, 
and religious health suffer no decay, know little of the 
intimate connection which the Creator has established 
between body and mind. 

Men may, to a certain extent, resist the injurious influ- 
ences of foul air ; as their employments usually compel 
them to live more out of doors : but alas, alas ! for the 
poor women ! In the very land where they are treated 
with such merited deference and respect, often no pro- 
vision is made to furnish them with that first element of 
health, cheerfulness and beauty, heaven's pure, fresh air. 

* The beautiful open or Franklin stoves, for coal or wood, manufactured by 
Messrs. Treadwell, Perry & Norton, of Albany, New York, deserve the highest 
commendation as economizers of life, health, and fuel. 



VENTILATION. 



93 



The pallid cheek or hectic flush, the angular form and 
distorted spine, the enfeebled appearance of. so large a por- 
tion of our women, who, to use the lauguage of the 
lamented Downing, " in the signs of physical health, com- 
pare most unfavorably with all but the absolutely starving 
classes in Europe;" all these indications of debility, to 
say nothing of their care-worn faces and premature 
wrinkles, proclaim our violation of God's physical laws, 
and the dreadful penalty with which He is visiting our 
transgressions. 

The man who shall convince the masses of the impor- 
tance of ventilation, and whose inventive mind shall 
devise some simple, cheap, and efficacious way of furnish- 
ing a copious supply of pure air for our private dwellings, 
public buildings, and travelling conveyances, will be a 
greater benefactor than a Jenner or a Watt, a Fulton or 

a Morse. 

In the ventilation of my hive, I have endeavored, as far 
as possible, to meet the necessities of the bees, under all 
the varying circumstances to which they are exposed in 
our uncertain climate, whose severe extremes of tempera, 
ture forcibly impress upon the bee-keeper, the maxim of 

Virgil, !* - 

" Utraque vis pariter apibus metuenda. 

" Extremes of heat or cold, alike are hurtful to the bees." 

To be useful to the majority of bee-keepers, artificial 
ventilation must be simple, and not as in Nutt's hive, and 
other labored contrivances, so complicated as to require 
almost as close supervision as a hot-bed or green- 
house. 

By furnishing ventilation independent of the entrance, 
we may improve upon the method which bees, in a state of 
nature, are often compelled to adopt, when the openings! 
into their hollow trees are so small, that they must employ 



94 THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 

in hot weather, a larger force in ventilation, than would 
otherwise be necessary. By the use of my movable 
blocks (PI. V., Fig. 17), the entrance may be kept so small, 
that only a single bee can go in at once, or it may be 
entirely closed, without the bees suffering for want of air. 
While the ventilators afford a sufficient supply, they may 
be easily controlled, so as not to injure the brood by 
admitting too strong a current of chilly air. In the 
chapter on wintering bees, directions are given for ven- 
tilating the hives in cold weather, so as to carry off all 
superfluous moisture. 

The construction of my hives allows of ventilation from 
above ; and it should always be used, when bees are shut 
up for any length of time, to be moved, that the colony 
may not be suffocated, by the lower ventilators becoming 
clogged by dead bees. As the entrance of the hive, may 
in a moment, be enlarged to any desirable extent, without 
perplexing the bees, any quantity of air which the bees 
may require, can be admitted ; the ventilator on the back 
allowing a free current to sweep through the hive. The 
entrance may be fourteen inches and upwards in length ; but 
as a general rule, in a large colony, it need not, in Summer, 
exceed four inches ; while, during the rest of the year, one 
or two inches will suffice. In very hot weather, especially 
if the hive stands in the sun, the bees cannot have too 
much air ; and the ventilators in the upper part of the 
main hive should all be kept open. 



REQUISITES OF A COMPLETE HIVE. 95 



CHAPTER VIII. 

REQUISITES OP A COMPLETE HIVE. 

In this chapter, I shall enumerate certain advantages 
which seem essential to the idea of a complete hive. In- 
stead of disparaging other hives, I prefer inviting the 
attention of bee-keepers to the importance of these 
requisites ; some of which, I believe,, are contained in no 
hive but my own. If, after careful scrutiny, they commend 
themselves to the judgment of practical cultivators, they 
will serve to test the comparative merits of the various 
hives in common use. 

1. A complete hive should give the Apiarian such perfect 
control of all the combs, that they may be easily taken 
out without cutting them, or enraging the bees. 

2. It should permit all necessary operations to be per- 
• formed without hurting or killing a single bee. 

Most hives are so constructed, that they cannot be used 
without injuring or destroying some of the bees ; and the 
destruction of even a few, materially increases the difficulty 
of managing them. 

3. It should afford suitable protection against extremes 
of heat and cold, sudden changes of temperature, and 
the injurious effects of dampness. 

The interior of a hive should be dry in Winter, and 
free in Summer from a pent and almost suffocating heat. 

4. It should permit every desirable operation to ba 
performed, without exciting the anger of the bees. 

5. Not one unnecessary motion should be required of 
a single bee. 



96 THE PIIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 

As the honey-harvest, in most locations, is of short con- 
tinuance, all the arrangements of the hive should facilitate, 
to the utmost, the work of the busy gatherers. Hives 
which compel them to travel with their heavy burdens 
through densely crowded combs, are very objectionable. 
Bees instead of forcing their way through thick clusters, 
can easily pass into the top surplus honey-boxes of my 
hives, from any comb in the hive, and into every box, 
without traveling at all over the combs. 

6. It should afford suitable facilities for inspecting, at all 
times, the condition of the bees. 

7. It should be capable of being readily adjusted to the 
wants of either large or small colonies. 

By means of a movable partition, my hive can be ad- 
justed, in a few moments, to the wants of any colony how- 
ever small ; and with equal facility be enlarged, from time 
to time, or at once restored to its full dimensions. 

8. It should allow the combs to be removed without 
any jarring. 

Bees manifest the utmost aversion to any motion which 
tends to loosen or detach their combs. The movable 
frames, however firmly fastened, can all be loosened in a 
few moments, without injuring or exciting the bees. 

9. It should allow every good piece of comb to be given 
to the bees, instead of melting it into wax. 

10. It should induce the bees to build regular combs. 
A hive containing too much comb suitable only for 

storing honey, or raising drones, cannot be expected to 
prosper. 

11. It should furnish empty comb, to induce bees to 
occupy more readily the surplus honey-receptacles, 

12. It should prevent the over-production of drones, by 
permitting the removal of drone-comb from the hive. 

13. It should enable the Apiarian, if too many drones 



Fig. 23. 



Plate X. 




Fig. 73. 




REQUISITES OF A COMPLETE HIVE. 97 

have been raised, to trap and destroy them, before they 
have largely consumed the honey of the hive. 

This is effected, in my hives, by adjusting the blocks 
(PI. III., Figs. 11, 12) which regulate the entrance. 

14. It should enable the Apiarian to remove such combs 
as are too old. 

The upper part of a comb, being generally used for 
storing honey, will last for many years. 

15. It ought to furnish all needed security against the 
ravages of the bee-moth. 

16. It should furnish to the Apiarian some accessible 
place, where the larvse of the bee-moth, when fully grown, 
may wind themselves in their cocoons. 

17. It should enable the Apiarian, by removing the 
combs, to destroy the worms, if they get the advantage 
of the bees. 

18. The bottom-board should be permanently attached 
to the hive, for convenience in moving it, and to prevent 
the depredations of moths and worms. 

Sooner or later, there will be crevices between every 
movable bottom-board and the side3 of the hive, through 
which moths will gain admission to lay their eggs, and 
inder which worms, when fully grown, will retreat to spin 
heir webs. In my hive, there is no place where the moth 
$an get in, except at the entrance for the bees, which may 
be contracted or enlarged, to suit the strength of the col- 
ony; and which, from its peculiar shape, the bees are 
easily enabled to defend. If, however, any prefer mova- 
ble bottom-boards, they can be used in my hive. 

19. The bottom-board should slant toward the entrance, 
to facilitate the caning out of dead bees, and other use- 
less substances ; to aid a colony in protecting itself against 
robbers; and to carry off moisture, and prevent rain from 
beating into the hive. 



98 THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 

20. The bottom-board should admit of being easily 
cleared, in cold weather, of dead bees. 

If suffered to remain, they often become mouldy, and 
injure the health of the colony. In dragging them out, 
when the weather moderates, the bees often fall with them 
on the snow, and are so chilled, that they never rise again ; 
for a bee, in flying away with the dead, frequently retains 
its hold, until both fall to the ground. 

21. No part of the interior of the hive should be below 
the level of the place of exit. 

If this principle is violated, the bees must, at great dis- 
advantage, drag, up hill, their dead, and all the refuse of 
the hive. 

22. It should afford facilities for feeding bees, both in 
warm and cold weather. 

In this respect, the movable-comb hive has unusual ad- 
vantages. In warm weather, sixty colonies may, in less 
than an hour, receive each a quart of food, without any 
feeder, and with no risk from robber-bees. 

23. It should permit the easy hiving of a swarm, with- 
out injuring any bees, or risking the destruction of the 
queen. 

24. It should admit of the safe transportation of the bees 
to any distance whatever. 

The permanent bottom-board, the firm attachment of 
each comb to a separate frame, and the facility with which 
air can be given to confined bees, admirably adapt my 
hive to this purpose. 

25. It should furnish bees with air, when the entrance, 
for any cause, must be entirely shut. 

26. It should furnish facilities for enlarging, contracting, 
and closing the entrance, to protect the bees against rob 
hers, and the bee-moth ; and when the entrance is altered. 



REQUISITES OF A COMPLETE HIVE. 99 

the bees ought not, as in most hives, to lose valuable time 
in searching for it. 

27. It should give the requisite ventilation, without en- 
larging the entrance so much as to expose the bees to 
moths and robbers. 

28. It should furnish facilities for admitting at once a 
large body of air, that the bees may be tempted to fly 
out and discharge their faeces, on warm days in Winter, 
or early Spring. 

If such a free admission of air cannot be given, the bees, 
by losing a favorable opportunity of emptying themselves, 
may suffer from diseases resulting from too long confine- 
ment. 

29. It should enable the Apiarian to remove the excess 
of bee-bread from old stocks. (See p. 82.) 

30. It should enable the Apiarian to remove the combs, 
brood, and stores, from a common to an improved hive, so 
that the bees may be easily able to attach them again 
in their natural positions. A colony transferred to my 
hive will repair their combs, in a few days, so as to work 
as well as before their removal. 

31. It should permit the safe and easy dislodgement of 
the bees from the hive. 

This requisite is especially important, when it becomes 
necessary to break up weak stocks, to join them to 
others. 

32. It should allow the bees, together with the heat and 
odor of the main hive, to pass in the freest manner, to the 
surplus honey-receptacles. 

In this respect, all other hives with which I am ac- 
quainted are more or less deficient : the bees being forced 
to work in receptacles difficult of access, and in which, in 
cool nights, they find it impossible to maintain the requi- 
site heat for comb-building. Bees cannot, in such 1 lives, 



100 THE HIVE AND HuNEY-BEE. 

work to advantage in glass tumblers, or other small ves- 
sels. One of the most important arrangements of my hive, 
is that by which the heat passes into the upper recepta- 
cles for storing honey, as naturally as the warmest air 
ascends to the top of a heated room. 

33. It should permit the surplus honey to be taken 
away, in the most convenient, beautiful, and salable forms, 
and without risk of annoyance from the bees. 

In my hives, it may be made on frames in an upper 
chamber, in tumblers, glass boxes, wooden boxes, small or 
large, earthen jars, flower-pots, in short, in any kind of 
receptacle which may suit the fancy or convenience of the 
bee-keeper. Or these may all be dispensed with, and the 
honey taken from the interior of the main hive, by remov- 
ing the full frames, and supplying their places with empty 
ones. 

34. It should admit of the easy removal of good honey 
from the main hive, when its place can be supplied by 
the bees with an inferior article. 

In districts where buckwheat is raised, any vacancies 
made by removing the choice honey from the hive will 
be rapidly filled. 

35. When quantity and not quality is the object sought, 
it should allow the greatest yield, that the surplus of 
strong colonies may be given, in the Fall, to those which 
have an insufficient supply. 

By surmounting my hive with a box of the same dimen- 
sions, and transferring the combs to this box, the bees, 
when they build new comb, will descend and fill the lower 
frames, using, as fast as the brood hatches, the upper box 
for storing honey. The combs in this box, containing a 
large amount of bee-bread, and being of a size adapted 
to the breeding of workers, will be very suitable for aiding 
weak colonies. 






BEQUISITES OF A COMPLETE HIVE. 101 



36. It should be able to compel the force of a colony to 
be mainly directed to raising young bees; that brood may 
be on hand to form new colonies, and strengthen feeble 
stocks. 

37. It ought to be so constructed that, while well pro- 
tected from the weather, the sun may be allowed in early 
Spring to encourage breeding, by warming up the hive. 

38. The hive should be equally well adapted to be used 
as a swarmer, or non-swarmer. 

In my hives, the bees may be allowed to swarm as 
in common hives, and be managed in the usual way. 
Even on this plan, the control of the combs will be found 
to afford unusual advantages. 

Non-swarming hives, managed in the ordinary way, are 
liable to swarm unexpectedly, in spite of all precautions. 
In my hives, the queen may be prevented from leaving, 
and a swarm will not depart without her. 

39. It should enable the Apiarian to prevent a new 
swarm from forsaking its hive. 

This vexatious occurrence can always be prevented, by 
so adjusting the entrance, for a few days, that the queen 
cannot leave the hive. 

40. It should enable the Apiarian, if he allows his bees 
to swarm, and wishes to secure surplus honey, to prevent 
their swarming more than once in a season. 

41. It should enable the Apiarian, who relies on natural 
swarming, and wishes to multiply his colonies as fast as 
possible, to make vigorous stocks of all his small after- 
swarms. 

Such swarms contain a young queen, and if they can 
be judiciously strengthened, usually make the best stock- 
hives. My hives enable me to supply all such swarms at 
once with combs containing bee-bread, honey, and matur- 
ing brood. 



102 THE HIYE AND HONEY* BEE. 

42. It should enable the Apiarian to multiply his colo- 
nies with a certainty and rapidity which are impossible if 
he depends upon natural swarming. 

43. It should enable the Apiarian to supply destitute 
colonies with the means of obtaining a new queen. 

Every Apiarian, for this reason alone, would find it to 
his advantage to possess, at least, one such hive. 

44. It should enable him to catch the queen, for any 
purpose ; especially to remove an old one whose fertility 
is impaired by age. 

45. While a complete hive is adapted to the wants of 
those who desire to manage their colonies on the most 
improved plans, it ought to be suited to the wants of those 
who, from timidity, ignorance, or any other reason, prefer 
the common way. 

46. It should enable a single bee-keeper to superintend 
the colonies of different individuals. 

Many persons would keep bees, if an Apiary, like a 
garden, could be superintended by a competent individual. 
No person can agree to do this with the common hives. 
If the bees are allowed to swarm, he may be called in a 
dozen different directions at once, and if any accident, 
such as the loss of a queen, happens to the colonies of his 
customers, he can usually apply no remedy. 

On my plan, those who desire it, may witness the indus- 
try of this sagacious insect, and gratify their palates with 
its delicious stores harvested on their own premises, with- 
out incurring either trouble, or risk of annoyance. 

47. All the joints of the hive should be water-tight, 
and there should be no doors or shutters liable to shrink, 
swell, or get out of order. 

The importance of this requisite will be obvious to any 
one who has had the ordinary share of vexatious experi- 
ence witl such fixtures. 



REQUISITES OF A COMPLETE HIVE. 103 

48. It should enable the bee-keeper entirely to dispense 
with sheds, or costly Apiaries ; as the hive itself should 
alike defy heat or cold, rain or snow. 

49. It ou^ht not to be liable to be blown down in hi^h 
winds. 

My hives may be made so low, for very windy situa- 
tions, that it would require almost a hurricane to upset 
them. 

50. A complete hive should have its alighting-board so 
constructed, as to shelter the bees against wind and wet, 
thus facilitating to the utmost their entrance with heavy 
burdens. 

If this precaution is neglected, the colony cannot be en- 
couraged to use, to the best advantage, the unpromising 
days which often occur in the working season. 

51. A complete hive should be protected against the 
destructive ravages of mice in Winter. 

When cold weather approaches, all my hives may have 
their entrances contracted by the movable blocks, so that 
a mouse cannot gain admission. 

52. It should permit the bees to pass over their combs 
in the freest manner, both in Summer and Winter. 

While such easy intercommunication facilitates the 
Summer work of the hive, it is often, in cold Winters, in- 
dispensable to the life of the colony. 

53. It should permit the honey, after the gathering 
season is over, to be concentrated where the bees will 
most need it. 

If the latter part of the season has been unpropitious, 
the centre combs, in which a colony usually winters, may 
have very little honey, while the others are well supplied. 
In hives where this cannot be remedied, it often causes 
the loss of the bees. 

54. It should permit a generous supply of honey to be 



104 THE HIYE AND HONEY-BEE. 

left, in the Fall, in the hive, without detriment either to 
the bees, or to their owner. 

If too much honey is taken, and the Winter prove 
very unfavorable, the bees may starve. In the common 
hives, if too much remains, it cannot be removed in the 
Spring, and it is thus worse than lost to the bee-keeper, 
by occupying the room needed for raising brood. 

55. It should permit the Apiarian to remove such combs 
as cannot be protected by the bees, to a place of safety. 

When a colony becomes greatly reduced in numbers, 
its empty combs may cause its destruction, by affording a 
harbor to the bee-moth ; or its rich stores of honey may 
tempt robbing bees to despoil it. In the common hives, 
often nothing can be effectually done to prevent such 
casualties. 

56. It should permit the space for spare honey recep- 
tacles to be enlarged or contracted at will, without any 
alteration or destruction of existing parts of the hive. 

Without the power to do this, the productive force of 
a colony is in some seasons greatly diminished. 

57. It should be so compact as to economize, if possible, 
every inch of material used in its construction. 

58. The hive, while presenting a neat appearance, 
should admit, if desired, of being made highly orna- 
mental. 

59. It should enable an Apiarian to lock up his hives in 
some cheap and convenient way. 

As my bottom-boards are not movable, the contents of 
a hive, when it is locked, can only be reached by carrying 
it bodily away. 

60. It should allow the contents of a hive, bees, combs, 
and all, to be taken out when it needs any repairs. 

As movable-comb hives can, at any time, be thoroughly 
overhauled arid repaired, they should last for generations. 



REQUISITES OF A COMPLETE HIVE. 105 

61. A complete hive, while possessing all these requi- 
sites, should, if possible, combine them in a cheap and 
simple form, adapted to the wants of all who are com- 
petent to cultivate bees. 

Few would imagine, in reading this long list of desira- 
bles, that any hive can combine them all, without being 
exceedingly complicated and expensive. On the contrary, 
the cheapness and simplicity with which the movable-comb 
hive effects this, is its most striking feature, and the one 
which has cost me more study than all the other points 
besides. Bees can work, in this hive, with even greater 
facility than in a simple box, as the frames being left 
rough by the saw, give them an admirable support while 
building their combs ; and they can enter the • spare 
honey-boxes with more ease than they could mount to an 
equal height in the upper part of a common box-hive. 

There are a few desirables to which my hive, even if it 
were perfect, could make no pretensions ! 

It promises no splendid results to those who are too 
ignorant or too careless to be entrusted with the manage- 
ment of bees. In bee-keeping, as in all other pursuits, a 
man must first understand his business, and then proceed 
upon the good old maxim, that " the hand of the diligent 
maketh rich." 

It has no talismanic influence which can convert a bad 
situation for honey into a good one ; or give the Apiarian 
an abundant harvest, whether the season is productive or 
otherwise. As well might a farmer seek for some kind of 
wheat which will yield an enormous crop, in any soil, and 
in every season. 

It cannot enable the cultivator, while rapidly multiply- 
ing his stocks, to secure the largest yield of honey from his 
bees. As well might the breeder of poultry pretend, that 
in the «nme year, and from the same stock, he can both 



106 THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 

raise the greatest number of chickens, and sell the largest 
number of eggs. 

Worse than all, it cannot furnish the many advantages 
enumerated, and yet be made in as little time, or quite as 
cheaply, as a hive which, in the end, proves to be a very 
dear bargain ! 

In the progress of mji invention, while undoubtedly 
attaching undue importance to some points, I have 
steadily endeavored to avoid constructing a hive in accord- 
ance with crude theories, or mere conjectures. Having 
carefully studied the nature of the honey-bee, for many 
years, and compared my observations with those of writers 
and cultivators who have spent their lives in extending 
the sphere of Apiarian knowledge, I have endeavored to 
remedy the many difficulties with which bee-culture is 
beset, by adapting my invention to the actual habits and 
wants of the insect. I have also tested the merits of this 
hive by long continued experiments, made on a large scale, 
so that I might not, by deceiving both myself and others, 
add another to the useless contrivances which have 
deluded and disgusted a too credulous public. I would, 
however, utterly repudiate all claims to having devised even 
a perfect bee-hive. Perfection belongs only to the works 
of Him, to whose omniscient eye were present all causes and 
effects, with all their relations, when he spake, and from 
nothing formed the Universe. For man to stamp the 
label of perfection upon any work of his own, is to show 
both his folly and presumption. 

The culture of bees is confessedly at a low ebb in this 
country, when thousands can be induced to purchase hives 
which are in glaring opposition to the plainest dictates of 
common sense, as well as the simplest principles of Apiarian 
knowledge. Such have been the losses of deluded pur- 
chasers, that it is no wonder they turn from everything 



I 



REQUISITES OF A COMPLETE HIVE. 107 

offered in the shape of a patent bee-hive, as a worthless 
conceit, if not an outrageous swindle. 

So deleterious has been the influence of the so-called 
"Improved Hives" that, as a general thing, only those 
who have used hives of the simplest form, have derived 
much profit from their bees. They have wasted neither 
time, money, nor bees, upon contrivances which can secure 
nothing in advance of a simple box-hive, with an upper 
chamber. 

A hive of the simplest possible construction, is a close 
imitation of the abode of bees in a state of nature ; being 
a mere hollow receptacle, where, protected from the 
weather, they can lay up their stores. An improved hive, 
is one which contains an additional, separate apartment, 
where bees can store their surplus honey for man. Most 
hives in common use are only modifications of this latter 
hive, and, as a general rule, are bad, exactly in propor- 
tion as they depart from it. While they tempt the com- 
mon bee-keeper to ruinous departures from the beatea 
path, they furnish him no remedy for the loss of the queen, 
or the casualties to which bees are exposed. Such hives, 
therefore, form no reliable basis for any improved system 
of management; and hence, the cultivation of bees, in 
this country, has declined for the last fifty years, and the 
Apiarian is as dependent as ever upon the caprices of an 
insect, which more than any of his domestic animals, may 
be completely subjected to his control. 

I would respectfully submit, that no hive which does not 
furnish a thorough control over every comb, can give that 
substantial advance over the simple improved or chamber 
hive, which the bee-keeper's necessities demand. Of such 
hives, the best are those which best unite cheapness and 
simplicity, with protection in Winter, and ready access to 
the spare honey-boxes. 



108 



THE HIYE AND HONEY-BEE. 



Having thus enumerated the tests to which all hives 
ought to be subjected, I submit them to the candid con- 
sideration of those, who, having the largest experience in 
the management of bees, are most conversant with the 
evils of the present system. If, on full trial, they find 
that the movable-comb hive can abide these tests, they 
may be willing to endorse the enthusiastic language of an 
experienced Apiarian, who, on examining its practical work- 
ings, declared that " it introduced not simply an improve* 
mentj but a complete revolution in bee-keeping." 



6WARMING AND HIVING. 109 



CHAPTER IX. 

NATURAL SWARMING, AND HIVING OF SWARMS. 

The swarming of bees is one of the most beautiful 
Bights in the whole compass of rural economy. Although 
many who use movable-comb hives prefer the artificial 
multiplication of colonies, few would be willing entirely to 
dispense with the pleasing excitement of natural swarm- 
ing. 

u Up mounts the chief, and to the cheated eye 

Ten thousand shuttles dart along the sky ; 

As swift through aether rise the rushing swarms, 

Gay dancing to the beam their sun-bright forms ; 

And each thin form, still ling'ring on the sight, 

Trails, as it shoots, a line of silver light. 

High pois'd on buoyant wing, the thoughtful queen, 

In gaze attentive, views the varied scene, 

And soon her far-fetch'd ken discerns below 

The light laburnum lift her polish' d brow, 

Wave her green leafy ringlets o'er the glade, 

And seem to beckon to her friendly shade. 

Swift as the falcon's sweep, the monarch bends 

Her flight abrupt ; the following host descends. 

Round the fine twig, like cluster'd grapes, they close 

In thickening wreaths, and court a short repose." 

Evans. 

The multiplication of colonies by swarming, both guards 
the bee against the possibility of extinction, and makes its 
labors in the highest degree useful to man. The laws of 
reproduction in insects not living in regular colonies, 
secure an ample increase of their numbers. The same is 
true of those which live in colonies during the warm 
weather only, as hornets, wasps, and humble-bees. In the 



110 THE HIVE AND HONEY-JiEF. 

Fall, the males perish, while the impregnated females, 
retreating into Winter quarters, remain dormant till warm 
weather restores them to activity, that each may become 
the mother of a new family. 

The honey-bee, however, is so organized that it must 
live in a community during the entire year; for while the 
balmy breezes of the Spring will quickly thaw the frozen 
body of a torpid wasp, the bee is chilled by a temperature 
no lower than 50° ; and it would be as impossible to re- 
store a frozen bee to animation, as to recall to life the 
stiffened corpses in the charnel-house of the Convent of 
the Great St. Bernard. Bees, therefore, in cool weather, 
must associate in large numbers, to maintain the heat 
necessary for their preservation ; and the formation of new 
colonies, after the manner of wasps and hornets, is out of 
the question. Even if the young queens, like the mother- 
wasps, were able, without aaiy assistance, to found new 
colonies, they could not maintain the warmth requisite for 
the development of their young. And if this were pos- 
sible, and they were furnished with a proboscis, for gath- 
ering honey, as long as that of a worker, baskets on their 
thighs for carrying bee-bread, and pouches on their abdo- 
mens for secreting wax, they would still be unable to 
amass treasures for our use, or even to lay up the stores 
requisite for their own preservation. 

How admirably are all these difficulties obviated by the 
present arrangement ! Their domicile being well supplied 
with all the requisite materials, the bees have added 
thousands, in the full vigor of youth, to their already nu- 
merous population, while such insects as depend upon 
the heat of the sun are still dormant. They can thus 
send off early colonies, strong enough to take Ml advan- 
tage of the honey-harvest, and to provision the new hive 
against the approach of Winter. From these considera- 






SWAKUDTG AMD mv Hi 

ions, it is evident that swan. far from being the 

>rced or unnatural event which some imagine, is one, 
rhich could not possibly be dispensed with, in a state of 
re. 
Let us now inquire under what circumstances swa-rm- 
ig ordinarily takes place. 
The time when new swarms may be expected, depends, 
of course, upon the climate, the forwardness of the season, 
and the strength of the stocks. In our Northern and 
Middle States, they seldom issue before the latter part of 
May ; and June may there be considered as the great 
swarming month. In Brownsville, Texas, on the lower 
Rio Grande, bees often swarm quite early in March. 

In the Spring, as soon as a hive well filled* with 
comb, can no longer accommodate its teeming population, 
the bees prepare for emigration, by building a number of 
royal cells. These cells are begun about the time that 
the drones make their appearance in the open air ; and 
when the young queens arrive at maturity, the males are 
usually very numerous. 

The first swarm is invariably led off by the old queen, 
unless she has died from accident or disease, when it is ac- 
companied by one of the young ones reared U f her 
The old mother, unless delayed by unfavorable 
weather, usually leaves soon after one or more of the royal 
cells are sealed over. There are n from which 
the Apiarian can predict the certain issue of a first swarm. 
For years, I spent much time in the vain attempt to dis- 
cover some infallible indications of first swarming ; until 
facts convinced me that there can be no such indications. 



* In onr Northern and Middle States, bees seldom swarm unless the hive is 
filled with comb ; in Southern latitudes, however, the swarming instinct seems to 
be much more powerful. In Matamoras and Brownsville, I have seen many 
a e from hive w I th comb. 



112 THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 

If the weather is unpleasant, or the blossoms yield an in- 
sufficient supply of honey, bees often change their minds, 
and refuse to swarm at all, even although their prepara- 
tions have been so fully completed, that, like the traveler 
whose trunks are packed, they have filled their honey-sacs 
for their intended journey. 

If, in the swarming season, but few bees leave a strong 
hive, on a clear, calm, and warm day, when other colonies 
are busily at work, we may look with great confidence for 
a swarm, unless the weather prove suddenly unfavorable. 
As the old queens which accompany the first swarm are 
heavy with eggs, they fly with such difficulty, that they 
are shy of venturing out, except on fair, still days. If the 
weather is very sultry, a swarm will sometimes issue as 
early as seven o'clock in the morning ; but from ten, A.M., 
to two, P.M., is the usual time; and the majority of 
swarms come off when the sun is within an hour of the 
meridian. Occasionally, a swarm ventures out as late as 
five, P. M. ; but an old queen is seldom guilty of such an 
indiscretion. 

I have repeatedly witnessed, in my observing-hives, the 
whole process of swarming. On the day fixed for their 
departure, the queen is very restless, and instead of de- 
positing her eggs in the cells, roams over the combs, and 
communicates her agitation to the whole colony. The 
emigrating bees usually fill themselves with honey, just 
before their departure ; but in one instance, I saw them 
lay in their supplies more than two hours before they left. 
A short time before the swarm rises, a few bees may 
generally be seen sporting in the air, with their heads 
turned always to the hive ; and they occasionally fly in 
and out, as though impatient for the important event to 
take place. At length, a violent agitation commences in 
the hive ; the bees appear almost frantic, whirling around 



SWARMING AND HIVING. 113 

in circles continually enlarging, like those made by a stone 
thrown into still water, until, at last, the whole hive is in a 
state of the greatest ferment, and the bees, rushing impetu- 
ously to the entrance, pour forth in one steady stream. 
Xot a bee looks behind, but each pushes straight ahead, 
as though flying " for dear life," or urged on by some in- 
visible power, in its headlong career. 

Often, the queen does not come out until many have 
left ; and she is frequently so heavy, from the number of 
eggs in her ovaries, that she falls to the ground, incapable 
of rising with her colony into the air. The bees soon 
miss her, and a very interesting scene may now be wit- 
nessed. Diligent search is at once made for their lost 
mother ; the swarm scattering in all directions, so that the 
leaves of the adjoining trees and bushes are often covered 
almost as thickly with anxious explorers, as with drops of 
rain after a copious shower. If she cannot be found, they 
commonly return to the old hive, in from five to fifteen 
minutes, though they occasionally attempt to enter a 
strange one, or to unite with another swarm. 

The ringing of bells, and beating of kettles and frying- 
pans, is probably not a whit more efficacious, than the 
hideous noises of some savage tribes, who, imagining that 
the sun, in an eclipse, has been swallowed by an enormous 
dragon, resort to such means to compel his snakeship to 
disgorge their favorite luminary. 

Many who have never practised " tanging," have never 
had a swarm leave without settling. Still, as one of 
the " country sounds," and as a relic of the olden times, 
even the most matter-of-fact bee-man can readily excuse 
the enthusiasm of that pleasant writer in the London 
Quarterly Review, who discourses as follows : 

" Some fine, warm morning in May or June, the whole 
atmosphere seems alive with thousands of bees, whirling 



114 THE HIVE AND H0NKY-BEE. 

and buzzing, passing and repassing, wheeling about in 
rapid circles, like a group of maddened bacchanals. Out 
runs the good housewife, with the frying-pan and key — 
the orthodox instruments for ringing — and never ceases 
her rough music, till the bees have settled. This custom, 
as old as the birth of Jupiter, is one of the most pleasing 
and exciting of the countryman's life ; and there is an old 
colored print of bee-ringing still occasionally met with on 
the walls of a country inn, that has charms for us, and 
makes us think of bright sunny weather in the dreariest 
November day. Whether, as Aristotle says, it affects 
them through pleasure or fear, or whether, indeed, they 
hear* it at all, is still as uncertain as that philosopher left 
it ; but we can wish no better luck to every bee-master 
that neglects the tradition, than that he may lose every 
swarm for which he omits to raise this time-honored con- 
cert." 

If, before its issue, a swarm has selected a new home, 
no amount of noise will compel them to alight, but as soon 
as the emigrating colony have all left the hive, they fly 
in a " bee-line" to the chosen spot. I have noticed, that 
such unceremonious leave-taking, though quite common 
when bees are neglected, seldom occurs when they are 
properly cared for. 

When the Apiarian perceives that a swarm, instead of 
clustering, rises higher and higher in the air and means to 
depart, not a moment must be lost : instead 06 empty 
noises, he should resort to means much more effective to 
stay their vagrant propensities. Water or dirt thrown 
among them, will often so disorganize them as to compel 
them to alight. The most original of all devices for stop- 

* The piping of the queen has a shrill, metallic sound, which possibly may be 
overpowered by the ringing, so as to distract bees which intend to decamp, and 
cause them to alight. 



1 

1 



SWARMING AND HIVING. 115 



ping them, is to flash the sun's rays among them, by a 
looking-glass ! I never had occasion to try it, but an 
anonymous writer says he never knew it fail. If forcibly 
prevented from eloping, they will be almost sure to leave, 
soon after hiving, for their selected home, unless the queen 
is confined. If there is reason to expect desertion, and 
the queen cannot be confined, the bees may be carried 
into the cellar, and kept in total darkness, until towards 
sunset of the third day, being supplied, in the mean time, 
with water and honey to build their combs. The same 
precautions must be used when fugitive swarms are re- 
hived. 

It is always very easy to prevent a new colony from 
abandoning the movable-comb hive, by regulating the 
entrance so that, while a loaded worker-bee can just 
pass, the queen will be unable to leave ; or a piece of 
comb, with unsealed worker-brood, may be transferred to 
the new hive, when a swarm will seldom forsake it. 

It may generally be ascertained, soon after hiving a 
swarm, whether or not it intends to remain. If, on ap- 
plying the ear to the side of the hive, a sound be heard, 
as of gnawing or rubbing, the bees are getting ready for 
comb-building, and will rarely decamp. 

If a colony decide to go, they look upon the hive in 
which they are put as only a temporary stopping-place, 
and seldom trouble themselves to build any comb. If the 
hive permits inspection, we may tell at a glance when 
bees are disgusted with their new residence, and mean to 
forsake it. They not only refuse to work with the char- 
acteristic energy of a new swarm, but their very attitude, 
hanging, as they do, with a sort of dogged or supercili- 
ous air, as though they hated even so much as to touch 
their detested abode, proclaims to the experienced eye, 
that they are unwilling tenants, and mean to be off as soon 



116 THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 

as they can. Numerous experiments to compel bees to 
work in observing-hives exposed to the full light of day, 
from the moment they were hived, instead of keeping 
them, as I now do, in darkness for several days, have 
made me quite familiar with all such do-nothing pro- 
ceedings before their departure. 

Bees sometimes abandon their hives very early in 
Spring, or late in Summer or Fall. Although exhibiting 
the appearance of natural swarming, they leave, not be- 
cause the population is so crowded that they wish to 
form new colonies, but because it is either so small, or the 
hive so destitute of supplies, that they are driven to des- 
peration. Seeming to have a presentiment that they must 
perish if they stay, instead of awaiting the sure approach 
of famine, they sally out to see if they cannot better their 
condition. I have known a starving colony to leave their 
hive on a Spring-like day in December. 

It may seem strange that the instincts of so provident 
an insect should not always impel it to select a suitable 
domicile before venturing to abandon the old home ; since 
often, before they are housed again, they are exposed to 
powerful winds and drenching rains, which beat down 
and destroy many of their number. 

I solve this bee-problem, like many others, by consider- 
ing how the present arrangement conduces to the advan- 
tage of man. 

Bees would have been of little service to him, if, instead 
of tarrying till he had time^ to hive them, their instincts 
had impelled them to decamp, without delay, from the 
restraints of domestication. In this, as in many other 
things, we see that what on a superficial view seemed an 
obvious imperfection, proves, on closer examination, to be 
a special contrivance to answer important ends. 

To return to our new swarm. The queen sometimes 






8W ARMING AND HIVING. 117 



alights first, and sometimes joins the cluster after it has 

I begun to form. The bees do not usually settle, unless 
she is with them ; and when they do, and then disperse, 
it is frequently the case that, after first rising with them, 
she has fallen, from weakness, into some spot where she is 
unnoticed by the bees. 

Perceiving a hive in the act of swarming, I, on two oc- 
casions, contracted the entrance, to secure the queen when 
she should make her appearance. In each case, at least 
one-third of the bees came out before she joined them. 
As soon as the swarm ceased searching for her, and were 
returning to the parent-hive, being placed, with her 
wings clipped, on a limb of a small evergreen tree, she 
crawled to the very top of the limb, as if for the express 
purpose of making herself as conspicuous as possible. The 
few bees which first noticed her, instead of alighting, 
darted rapidly to their companions ; in a few seconds, the 
whole colony was apprised of her presence, and flying in 
a dense cloud, began quietly to cluster around her. Bees 
when on the wing intercommunicate with such surprising 
rapidity, that telegraphic signals are scarcely more instan- 
taneous. 

That bees send out scouts to seek a suitable abode, 
admits of no serious question. Swarms have been traced 
directly to their new home, in an air-line flight, either 
from their hive, or from the place where they clustered 
after alighting. Now this precision of flight to an un- 
known home, would plainly be impossible, if some of their 
number, by previous explorations, were not competent to 
act as guides to the rest. The sight of bees for distant 
objects is so wonderfully acute, that, after rising to a suffi- 
cient elevation, they can see, at the distance of several 
miles, any prominent objects in the vicinity of their in- 
tended abode. 



118 TIIE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 

Whether bees send out scouts before or after swarming, 
may admit of more question. When a colony flies to its 
new home without alighting, the scouts must have been 
dispatched before swarming. If this were the usual 
course, we should expect every colony to take the same 
speedy departure ; or if they should cluster for the con- 
venience of the queen, or any bees over-fatigued by the 
excitement of swarming, we should look for only a tran- 
sient tarrying. Instead of this, they often remain until 
the next day, and instances are not unfrequent of a much 
more protracted delay. The stopping of bees in their 
•flight to cluster again, is not inconsistent with these views ; 
for if the weather is hot when they first cluster j and the 
sun shines directly upon them, they will often leave before 
they have found a suitable habitation. Sometimes the 
queen of an emigrating swarm, being heavy with eggs, 
and unaccustomed to fly, is compelled to alight, before 
she can reach their intended home. Queens, under such 
circumstances, are occasionally unwilling to take wing 
again, and the poor bees sometimes attempt to lay the foun- 
dations of their colony on fence-rails, hay-stacks, or other 
unsuitable places. 

Mr. Wagner says, that he once knew a swarm of bees 
to lodge under the lowermost limb of an isolated oak- 
tree, in a corn-field. It was not discovered until the corn 
was harvested, in September. Those who found it, mis- 
took it for a recent swarm, and in brushing it down to 
hive it, broke off three pieces of comb, each about eight 
inches square. Mr. Henry M. Zollickofler, of Philadelphia, 
informed me that he knew a swarm to settle on a willow- 
tree in that city, in a lot owned by the Pennsylvania Hos< 
pital ; it remained there for some time, and the boys pelted 
it with stones, to get possession of its comb and honey. 

The necessity for scouts or explorers seems to be unquea* 






SWAKMING AND HIVING. 119 



tionable, unless we can admit that bees have the faculty of 
flying in an " air line," to a hollow tree which they have 
never seen, and which may be the only one among thous- 
ands where they can find a suitable abode. 

These views are confirmed by the repeated instances in 
which a few bees have been noticed inquisitively prying 
into a hole in a hollow tree, or the cornice of a building, 
and have, before long, been followed by a whole 
colony. 

Having described the method commonly pursued by a 
new swarm, when left to their natural instincts, we return 
to the parent-stock from which they emigrated. 

From the immense number which have abandoned it, 
we should naturally infer that it must be nearly depopu- 
lated. As bees swarm in the pleasantest part of the day, 
some suppose that the population is replenished by the 
return of large numbers from the fields ; this, however, 
cannot often be the case, as it is seldom that many are 
absent from the hive at the time of swarming. To those 
who limit the fertility of the queen to four hundred eggs 
a day, the rapid replenishing of a hive, after swarming, 
must be inexplicable ; but to those who have seen her lay 
from one to three thousand eggs a day, it is no mystery 
at all. Enough bees remain to carry on the domestic 
operations of the hive : and as the old queen departs only 
when there is a teeming population, and when thousands 
of young are daily hatching, and tens of thousands rapidly 
maturing, the hive, in a short time, is almost as populous 
as it was before swarming. 

Those who suppose that the new colony consists wholly 
of young bees, forced to emigrate by the older ones, if 
they closely examine a new swarm, will find that while 
some have the ragged wings of age, others are so young 
as to he barely able to fly. 



120 THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 

After the tumult of swarming is over, not a bee that 
did not participate in it, attempts to join the new colony, 
and not one that did, seeks to return. "What determines 
some to go, and others to stay, we have no certain means 
of knowing. How wonderful must be the impression 
made upon an insect, to cause it in a few minutes so com- 
pletely to lose its strong affection for the old home, that 
when established in a hive only a few feet distant, it pays 
not the slightest attention to its former abode! When 
their new domicile is removed — after some have gone to 
the fields — from the place where the bees were hived, on 
their return, they often fly for hours in ceaseless circus 
about the spot where the missing hive stood; and sonu* 
times continue the vain search for their companions, untfl. 
dropping from exhaustion, they perish in close proximity 
to their old home. 

It has already been stated that, if the weather is favor- 
able, the old queen usually leaves near the time that 
the young queens are sealed over to be changed into 
nymphs. In about a week, one of them hatches ; and the 
question must be decided whether or not, any more col- 
onies shall be formed that season. If the hive is well 
filled with bees, and the season is in all respects promising, 
it is generally decided in the affirmative ; although, under 
such circumstances, some very strong colonies refuse to 
swarm more than once ; while the repeated ^warming of 
weaker ones often ruins both the parent-stock and its 
after-swarms. 

If the bees decide to swarm but once, the first hatched 
queen, being allowed to have her own way, rushes imme- 
diately to the cells of her sisters, and stings them to death. 
The other bees probably aid her in this murderous trans- 
action ; they certainly tear open the cradles of the slaugh- 
tered innocents (PI. XIV., Fig. 47, c?), and remove them 



Fig. 24. 




Fig. 26. 




Fig. 27. 




ff 




Fig. 28. 




Fig. 29. 



-^ 



Fig. 30. 






SWARMING AND HIVING. 121 

from the cells. Their dead bodies may often be found on 
the ground in front of the hh e. 

When a queen has emerged from her cell in the natural 
way, the bees cut it down (PL XIV., Fig. 47, c), till only 
a small acorn-cup remains ; but if she met with a violent 
end, they usually remove the whole cell. By counting 
these acorn-cups, we can ascertain how many queens have 
hatched in a hive. 

If the bees of the parent-stock decide to send out a 
second colony, the first hatched queen is prevented from 
killing the others. A strong guard is kept over their 
cells, and as often as she approaches them with murderous 
intent, she is bitten, or given to understand by other most 
uncourtier-like demonstrations, that even a queen cannot, 
in all things, do just as she pleases. 

Like some human beings who cannot have their own 
way, she is highly offended when thus repulsed, and 
utters, in a quick succession of notes, a shrill, angry, 
sound, not unlike the rapid utterance of the words, 
" peep, peep." If held in the closed hand, she will make 
a similar noise. To this angry note, one or more of the 
unhatched queens will respond, in a somewhat hoarser 
key, just as a cock, by crowing, bids defiance to its rivals. 
These sounds, so entirely unlike the usual steady hum of 
the bees, or the fluttering noises of unhatched queens, are 
almost infallible indications that a second swarm will soon 
isstfe. They are occasionally so loud as to be heard at 
some distance from the hive. About a week after first- 
swarming, the Apiarian should place his ear against the 
hive, in the morning or evening, when the bees are still, 
and if the queens are " piping," he will readily recognize 
their peculiar sounds. The young queens are all mature, 
at the latest, in sixteen days from the departure of the 
first swarm, even if it left as soon as the royal cells were 

6 



122 THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 

begun. If, during this period, these notes are not heard, 
it is an infallible indication that the first hatched queen 
has no rivals ; and that swarming, in that stock, is over 
for the season. 

The second swarm usually issues on the second or third 
day after piping is heard ; though they sometimes delay 
coming out until the fifth day, in consequence of an un- 
favorable state of the weather. Occasionally, the weather 
is so extremely unfavorable, that the bees permit the 
oldest queen to kill the others, and refuse to swarm again. 
This is a rare occurrence, as young queens are not so par- 
ticular about the weather as old ones, and sometimes ven- 
ture out, not merely when it is cloudy, but when rain is 
falling. On this account, if a very close watch is not 
kept, they are often lost. As piping ordinarily commences 
about a week after first-swarming, the second swarm usu- 
ally issues nine days after the first ; although it has been 
known to issue as early as the third, and as late as the 
seventeenth ; but such cases are very rare. 

It frequently happens in the agitation of swarming, that 
the usual guard over the queen-cells is withdrawn, and sev- 
eral hatch at the same time, and accompany the colony ; in 
which case, the bees often alight in two or more separate 
clusters. In my observing-hives, I have repeatedly seer 
young queens thrust out their tongues from a hole in their 
cell, to be fed by the bees. If allowed to issue at will, 
they are pale and weak, like other young bees, and for 
some time unable ,to fly ; but if confined the usual time, 
they come forth fully colored, and ready for all emergencies, 
I have seen them issue in this state, while the excitement 
caused by removing the combs from a hive, has driven the 
guard from their cells. 

The following remarkable instance came under my ob- 
servation, in Matamoras, Mexico. A second swarm de- 



SWARMING AND HIVING. 123 

eerting its abode the second day after being hived, settled 
upon a tree. On examining the abandoned hive, Jive 
young queens were found lying dead on its bottom- 
board. The swarm was returned, and, the next morning, 
two more dead queens were found. As the colony after- 
wards prospered, eight queens, at least, must have left the 
parent-stock in a single swarm ! 

Young queens, whose ovaries are not burdened with 
eggs, are much quicker on the wing than old ones, and 
frequently fly much farther from the parent-stock before 
they alight. After the departure of the second swarm, 
the oldest remaining queen leaves her cell ; and if another 
swarm is to come forth, piping will still be heard ; and so 
before the issue of each swarm after the first. It will 
sometimes be heard for a short time after the issue of the 
second swarm, even when the bees do not intend to swarm 
again. The third swarm usually leaves the hive on the 
second or third day after the second swarm, and the 
others, at intervals of about a day. I once had five 
swarms from one stock, in less than two weeks. In warm 
latitudes, more than twice this number of swarms have 
been known to issue, in one season, from a single stock. 

In after-swarming, the queen sometimes re-enters the 
hive, after having appeared on the alighting-board. If 
she does this once, she will be apt to do it repeatedly, and 
the swarm, in each instance, will return to the mother- 
hive. 

In the Apiary of a friend in Matamoras, when his first 
swarm issued, there was no tree for it to alight on. The 
wind was so strong, that the bees did not leave the vicin- 
ity of their hives, but began to settle on a hive near their 
own. Although the queen was secured, with a portion of 
her colony, a large part of the swarm entered the adjoin- 
ing stocks. When these stocks swarmed, although a tree 



124 THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 

had been set out for them to cluster on, the bees which 
had returned on the first occasion, did the same thing 
again, drawing with them the rest of their companions. 
The only way in which we could obtain a single swarm, 
was by covering with sheets all the hives in the Apiary 
as soon as one swarmed, and thus the bees, being unable 
to enter them, were compelled to alight ! It would be 
difficult to find a better illustration of the folly of neglect- 
ing the old adage, " A stitch hi time saves nine." 

After-swarms, or casts — these names are given to all 
swarms after the first — seriously reduce the strength of the 
parent-stock ; since by the time they issue, nearly all the 
brood left by the old queen has hatched, and no more 
eggs can be laid until all swarming is over. It is a 
wise arrangement, that the second swarm does not ordi- 
narily issue until all the eggs left by the first queen are 
hatched, and the young mostly sealed over, so as to 
require no further feeding. Its departure earlier than 
this, would leave too few laborers to attend to the wants 
of the young bees. If, after swarming, the weather sud- 
denly becomes chilly, and the hive is thin, or the Apiarian 
continues the ventilation which was needed only for a 
crowded colony, the old stock being unable to maintain the 
requisite heat, great numbers of the brood often perish. 

The effect on the profits of the Apiary, of too frequent 
swarming, is discussed in the next chapter. If the bee- 
keeper wants no casts, he can easily prevent their issue 
from my hives. About five days after the first swarm 
comes out, the parent-stock may be opened, and all the 
queen-cells removed, except one. If done earlier than 
this, the bees may start others, in the place of those re- 
moved. Those only who have thoroughly tried both 
plans, can appreciate how much better this is, than to 
attempt to return the after-swarms to the parent hive. 




SWARMING AND HIVING. 125 

The Apiarian who desires by natural swarming to mul- 
tiply his colonies as rapidly as possible, will find full 
directions in the sequel, for building up all after-swarms, 
however small, so as to make vigorous stocks. 

It will be remembered, that both the parent-stock from 
which the swarm issues, and all the colonies, except the 
first, have a young queen. These queens never leave the 
hive for impregnation, until they are established as heads 
of independent families. They generally go out for this 
purpose, early in the afternoon of the first pleasant day, 
after being thus acknowledged, at which time, the drones 
are flying most numerously. On leaving their hive, they 
fly with their heads turned towards it, often entering 
and departing several times, before they finally soar into 
the air. Such precautions on the part of a young queen 
are highly necessary, that she may not, on her return, 
lose her life, by attempting, through mistake, to enter a 
strange hive. More queens are thus lost than in any 
other way. 

When a young queen leaves for impregnation, the bees, 
on missing her, are often filled with such alarm that they 
rush from the hive, as if intending to swarm. Their agita- 
tion is soon quieted, if she returns in safety. 

The drone perishes in the act of impregnating the 
queen. Although, when cut into two pieces, each piece 
will retain its vitality for a long time, I accidentally ascer- 
tained, in the Summer of 1852, that if his abdomen is 
gently pressed, and sometimes if several are closely held 
in the warm hand, the male organ will often be perma- 
nently extruded, with a motion very like the popping of 
roasted pop-corn ; and the insect, with a shiver, will curl up 
and die. as quickly as if blasted with the lightning's stroke. 
This singular provision is unquestionably intended to give 
additional security to the queen, when she leaves her hive to 



126 THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 

have intercourse with the drone. Huber first discovered 
that she returned with the male organ torn from the 
drone, and still adhering to her body. If it were not for 
this arrangement, her spermatheca could not be filled, 
unless she remained so long in the air with the drone as 
to incur a very great risk of being devoured by birds. 
In one instance, some days after the impregnation of a 
queen, I found the male organ,* in a dried state, adhering 



* On page 50 of the English translation of Prof. SiebolcTs work on " Partheno- 
genesis " (that is, production without intercourse with the male) " of Moths and 
Bees," may be found the following extract of a letter to Prof. Siebold, dated 21st 
July, 1853, from the celebrated German Apiarian, the Baron Von Berlepsch. 

" I succeeded, to-day, in impaling upon a pin, a queen which had flown out to 
copulate, just as she was about to re-enter the hive. T<he signs of copulation stand 
far out. * * * Will you have the kindness to settle, by dissection : 1, if any, and 
what, parts of the drone occur in the royal vulva; and 2, what is the condition of 
the seminal receptacle. If there be parts of the drone in the vulva, people will, 
at last, admit that the drones are the males, and that the copulation takes place 
outside of the hive. * * * Moreover, if you find the seminal receptacle filled with 
semen, Dzierzon's hypothesis — according to which the ovary is not fertilized, but 
the seminal receptacle filled with male drone-semen, by copulation — is raised into 
evidence." 

Prof. Siebold says, that "he was able to establish, that those definitely formed 
parts in the vagina of the queen were nothing but the torn copulative organs of a 
male bee (drone). With this condition of the external sexual organs of the queen, 
the state of the internal generative organs also agreed exactly, for the seminal re- 
ceptacle which is empty in all virgin female insects, was, in this queen, filled to 
overflowing with seminal filaments (spermatozoids)." 

I give as interesting, in this connection, the following extract from my journal : 
" August 25th, 1852. — Found the male organ protruding from a young queen ; 
could not remove it without exerting so much force that I feared it would kill her. 
Dr. Joseph Leidy examined this queen-bee with the microscope, so as to demon- 
etrate that — to use his words — 4 it was the penis and its appendages of a male, 
corresponding, in all its anatomical peculiarities, with the same organs examined, 
at the same time, in other drones. The testicles and vasa deferentia of these 
drones were found to be full of the spermatic fluid. The spermatheca of the 
queen was distended with the same semi-fluid, spermatic matter.' 1 This one exam- 
ination demonstrates that the drones are males, and that they impregnate the 
queen by actual coition." 

Prof. Siebold further says : " As in the act of copulation of the bees, the penis 
of a drone is completely protruded outwards, and as no particular muscular appa- 
ratus exists for the extrusion of the penis, the circumstance that the drones copu- 
late in flight, has an important signification. * * * During the movement of the 
wings, the different air-sacs of the tracheal system of the drone are filled with air„ 



{SWARMING AND HIVING. 127 

d firmly to her body, that it could not be removed wdth- 
ut tearing her to pieces. 
The following facts will show that the impregnation of 
the queen by the drone, in the open air, may be made a 
matter of ocular demonstration: Lewis Shrimplin, of 
Wellsboro', Brook County, Virginia, purchased a mova- 
ble-comb hive, in the Spring of 1857, into which he put a 
second swarm. Finding, after a few days, that the bees 
had built a number of very straight combs, he called some 
of his neighbors together, to witness the ease with which 
he could take out, and replace their combs. "While stand- 
ing in front of the hive, he saw the queen coming out, and 
the idea occurred to him to catch her, and tie a very fine 
silk thread to one of her thighs. This he accomplished 
successfully; and as she began to ascend,* the drones 

by which means these can act by pressure, in the interior of the body of the bee, 
upon the neighboring penis which is to be protruded.' 1 

" The following interesting experiment'" (Parthenogenesis, p. 54) "was made by 
Berlepsch, in order to confirm the drone-productiveness of a virgin queen. He 
contrived the exclusion of queens at the end of September, 1854, and, therefore, at 
a time when there was no longer any males ; he was lucky enough to keep one of 
them through the Winter, and this produced drone-offspring on the 2d of March, in 
the following year, furnishing fifteen hundred cells with brood. That this drone- 
bearing queen remained a virgin, was proved by the dissection which Leuckart 
undertook, at the request of Berlepsch. He found the state and contents of the 
seminal poiich of this queen to be exactly of the same nature as those found in 
virgin queens. The seminal receptacle in such females never contains semen- 
masses, with their characteristic spermatozoids, but only a limpid fluid, destitute 
of cells and granules, which is produced from the two appendicular glands of the 
seminal capsule ; and, as I suppose, serves the purpose of keeping the semen 
transferred into the seminal capsule in a fresh state, and the spermatozoids active, 
and, consequently, capable of impregnation.'" 

By referring to pages 33, 39, the reader will see that Prof. Leidy dissected for 
me a drone-laying queen, nearly three years before this examination of Leuckart. 

Prof. Siebold, in 1848, examined the spermatheca of the queen-bee, and found it 
after copulation, filled with the seminal fluid of the drone. At that time, Api- 
arians paid no attention to his views, but considered them, as he says, to be only 
u theoretical stuff." It seems, then, that Prof. Leidy's dissection (pp. 34, 35) wa6 
not, as I had hitherto supposed, the first, of an impregnated spermatheca. 

* Dzierzon supposes that the sound of the queen's wings, when she is in the 
air. excites the drones. In the interior of the hive, they are never seen in »iotic« 



128 THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 

collected around her in very large numbers. After 
remaining in the air a short time, she returned to the 
entrance of her hive, exhibiting to the spectators the 
organs of the drone still protruding from her body. 

The queen usually begins laying about two days after 
impregnation, and for the first season, lays almost entirely 
the eggs of workers ; no males* being needed in colonies 
which will throw no swarm till another season. She is 
seldom treated with much attention by the bees until after 
she has begun to replenish the cells with eggs ; although 
if previously deprived of her, they show, by their despair, 
that they fully appreciated her importance to their welfare. 

A first swarm will sometimes swarm again, about a 
month after it is hived ; but in Northern climates this is a 
rare occurrence. In South-western Texas, I have known 
even second swarms to do the same thing, and colonies 
often swarm there in September and October, while in 
tropical climates, swarms issue at any season when forage 
is abundant. In our Northern and Middle States, swarm- 
ing is usually over, three or four weeks after it begms. 
Inexperienced bee-keepers, unaware of this, often watch 
their Apiaries, long after the swarming season has passed. 

I shall now, while giving such directions for hiving 
swarms as may aid even some experienced Apiarians, at- 
tempt to make them sufficiently minute to guide those, 



her ; so that she is not molested, even if thousands are members of the same 
colony with herself. 

* Huber supposed that male eggs were not developed in her ovaries until the 
6econd year ; but as the sex depends upon the impregnation of the eggs, he was 
evidently mistaken. In warm climates, where after-swarms swarm again, drones 
are bred in large numbers in hives having young queens. The bee is evidently a 
native of a hot climate, although it can live wherever there is a Summer long 
enough for it to prepare for Winter. Its complete development, however, can be 
witnessed only in tropical regions, and I am persuaded that many things which, 
in colder climates, have been regarded as fixed laws, are only exceptional adap- 
tations to unfavorable circumstances. 



Fig. 31. 




Plate XII. 



Fig. 32. 




Fig. 33. 




SWARMING AND HIVING. 129 

who, having never seen a swarm hived, are apt to imagine 
that the process must be quite formidable. Experience in 
this, as in other things, will speedily give them the requi- 
site skill and confidence ; and the cry of " the bees are 
swarming," will often be hailed with even greater pleasure 
than an invitation to a sumptuous banquet. 

The hives for the new swarms should be painted long 
enough beforehand to be thoroughly dry. The smell of 
fresh paint is well known to be very injurious to human 
beings, and is so detested by bees, that they will often 
desert a new hive sooner than endure it. If the hives 
cannot be seasonably painted, paints should be used which 
contain no white-lead, and which are mixed so as to dry 
as quickly as possible. 

The following recipe, taken from the Bienenzeitung, for 
a cheap and durable paint, for rough hives, is said to be 
preferable to oil paint : " Two parts, by measure, of fine 
sand, well sifted ; one of best English cement* ; one of 
curd, from which the whey has been well expressed ; one 
of buttermilk. These are to be thoroughly mixed. The 
paint is to be applied, amid repeated stirring, to the hives, 
by means of a common paint-brush. A second coat is to 
be given after the lapse of half an hour. When this has 
become thoroughly dry, which will be in two or three 
days, it is to be brushed over lightly with a thin coat of 
boiled linseed oil, to which any desirable color may be 
given. The boards to which the paint is to be applied 
should not be planed, but remain rough as the saw leaves 
them. No more of the paint should be prepared at any 
one time, than can be used in the course of half an hour, 
as it quickly hardens. The hive may be used as soon as 
the paint stiffens." 

Hives that have stood in the sun, ought never to be 

* Roman, or common Hydraulic cement is probably meant, or would answer. 

6* 



130 THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 

used for new swarms. Bees, when they swarm, being 
unnaturally excited and heated, often refuse to enter such 
hives, and at best, are slow in taking possession of them. 
The temperature of the parent-stock, at the moment of 
swarming, rises very suddenly, and many bees are often 
so drenched with perspiration, that they are unable to 
take wing and join the emigrating colony. To attempt 
to make swarming bees enter a heated hive in a blazing 
sun, is, therefore, as irrational as it would be to force a 
panting crowd of human beings into the suffocating at- 
mosphere of a close garret. If the process of hiving can- 
not be conducted in the shade, the hive should be covered 
with a sheet, or with leafy boughs. 

In the movable-comb hive, the Apiarian can use all his 
good worker-comb, by fastening it in the frames. Such, 
however, is the shape of the artificial guide-combs in 
these frames, that the bees, even in an empty hive, will 
almost always build their combs with great regularity, 
if they are not furnished with too much empty room. I 
have, in &few instances, known them to build their combs 
directly across, from frame to frame, so that they could 
not be removed without cutting them to pieces. This 
may easily be prevented, by attaching a piece of guide- 
comb to a single frame (see p. 72). While the hive should 
be set so as to incline from rear tfo front, to shed the 
rain, there ought not to be the least pitch from side to 
side, or it will prevent the frames from hanging plumb, 
and compel the bees to build crooked combs. Drone- 
combs should never be put in the frames, or the bees will 
follow the pattern, and build comb suitable only for breed- 
ing a horde of useless consumers. Such comb, if white, 
may be used to great advantage in the surplus honey- 
boxes ; if old, it should be melted for wax. 

Every piece of good worker-comb, if large enough to 



SWARMING AND HIYING. 131 

be attached to a frame, should be used, both for its intrin- 
sic value, and because bees are so pleased when they find 
such unexpected treasures in a hive, that they will seldom 
forsake it. A new swarm often takes possession of a de- 
serted hive, well stored with comb ; whilst, if dozens of 
empty ones stand in the Apiary, they very seldom enter 
them of their own accord. It once seemed to me that an 
instinct impelling them to do so, would have been much 
better for us than the present arrangement ; but further 
reflection has shown me that, on the contrary, it would 
have been the fruitful origin of interminable broils among 
neighboring bee-keepers ; and that in this, as in so many 
other things, the instincts of the honey-bee have been de- 
vised with special reference to the welfare of man. 

When the frames* are first used for a new swarm, the 
rabbets on which they rest should be smeared with flour- 
paste ; this will keep the frames firm, till they are fastened 
with propolis by the bees. If hives are sweet and clean, 
the rubbing of them with various kinds of herbs or washes, 
is always useless, and often positively injurious. 

If there are no small trees or bushes near the Apiary, 
from which the swarms, when clustered, can be easily 
gathered, limbs of evergreen or other trees may be 
fastened into the ground, a few rods in front of the hives, 
which will answer a very good temporary purpose. If 
there are high trees near his stocks, the bee-master, unless 
some special precautions are used, will lose much time in 
hiving his swarms. 

Having noticed that a new swarm will almost always 
alight wherever they see a mass of clustering bees, I find 
that they can be determined to some selected spot by an 
old black hat, or even a mullen stalk, which, when colored 
black, can hardly be distinguished, at a distance, from a 

* For their proper adjustment, see Explanation of Plates. 



132 THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 

clustering swarm. A black woolen stocking or piece of 
cloth, fastened to a shady limb, in plain sight of the hives, 
and where the bees can be most conveniently hived, would 
probably answer as good a purpose. Swarms are not only 
attracted by the bee-like color of such objects, but are 
more readily induced to alight upon them, if they furnish 
something to which they can easily cling, the better to 
support their grape-like clusters. By proper precautions, 
before the first swarms issue, the bee-keeper may so edu- 
cate his favorites that they will seldom alight anywhere 
but on the spot which he has previously selected. 

The Rev. Thomas P. Hunt, of Wyoming, Penn., has 
devised an amusing plan, by which he says that he can, 
at all times, prevent a swarm of bees from leaving his 
premises. Before his stocks swarm, he collects a number of 
dead bees, and, stringing them with a needle and thread, 
as worms are strung for catching eels, he makes of them 
a ball about the size of an egg, leaving a few strands loose. 
By carrying — fastened to a pole — this " bee-bob »," about his 
Apiary, when the bees are swarming, or by placing it in 
some central position, he invariably secures every swarm ! 

It will inspire the inexperienced Apiarian with more 
confidence, to remember that almost all the bees in a 
swarm, are in a very peaceable mood, having filled them- 
selves with honey before leaving the parent-stock. If he 
is timid, or suffers severely from the sting of a bee, he 
should, by all means, furnish himself with the protection 
of a bee-dress. 

A new swarm should be hived as soon as they have 
quietly clustered around their queen ; although there is no 
necessity for the headlong haste practiced by some, which, 
by exciting profuse perspiration, increases their liability to 
be stung. Those who show so little self-possession, must 
not be surprised, if they are stung by the bees of other 



SWAKMTNG AND HIVING. 133 

hives, which, instead of being gorged with honey, are on 
the alert, and very naturally mistake the object of such 
excited demonstrations. The fact that the swarm has 
clustered, makes it almost certain, that, unless the weather 
is very hot, or they are exposed to the burning heat of the 
sun, they will not leave for at least one or two hours. 
All convenient dispatch, however, should be used in hiving 
a swarm, lest it send out scouts, which may entice it from 
the new hive, or lest other colonies issue, and attempt to 
add themselves to it. 

If my hives are used, the whole entrance should be 
opened, that the bees may get in as soon as possible ; and 
a sheet should be securely fastened to the alighting-board, 
to keep them from becoming separated, or soiled by dirt ; 
for, if separated, they are a long time in entering ; and a 
bee covered with dust or dirt is very apt to perish. The 
common hives should be propped up on the sheet, in such 
a way as to give the bees the readiest admission. 

When the limb on which the bees have clustered can 
be easily reached, it should be shaken, with one hand, so 
that they may gently fall into a basket held under them, 
with the other. The basket should be open sufficiently to 
admit the air freely, but not enough to allow the bees to 
get through its sides. They should now be gently sha- 
ken or poured out on the sheet, in front of their new 
home. If they seem at all reluctant to enter it, gently 
scoop up a few of them with a large spoon, and shake them 
close to its entrance. As they go in with fanning wings, 
they will raise a peculiar note, which communicates to 
their companions the joyful news that they have found a 
home ; and in a short time, the whole swarm will enter, 
without injury to a single bee. 

When bees are once shaken down on the sheet, they are 
quite unwilling to take wing again ; for, being loaded with 



134 THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 

honey, they desire, like heavily-armed troops, to march 
slowly and sedately to their place of encampment. Bees 
are much obstructed in their travel, by any corner, or 
great inequality of surface ; and if the sheet is not smooth- 
ly stretched, they are often so confused, that they take a 
long time to find the entrance to the hive. If they are 
too dilatory in entering the new hive, they may be gently 
separated, with a spoon, or leafy twig, where they gather 
in bunches on the sheet ; or, they may be carefully 
"spooned up," and emptied before the entrance of the 
hive. If they cluster in the portico of my hive, they 
should be treated in the same way ; or else the queen, 
mistaking this open place for her intended abode, may 
decamp with the bees. 

On first shaking them down into the hiving-basket, some 
will take wing, and others will remain on the tree ; but if 
the queen has been secured, they will quickly form a 
line of communication with those on the sheet. If the 
queen has not been secured, the bees will either refuse to 
enter the hive, or will speedily come out, and take wing, 
to join her again. This happens oftenest with after- 
swarms, whose young queens, instead of exhibiting the 
gravity of an old matron, are apt to be frisking in the 
air. When the bees cluster again on the tree, the process 
of hiving must be repeated. . 

If the Apiarian has a pair of sharp pruning-shears, and 
the limb on which the bees have clustered is so small, that 
it can be cut without jarring them off, they may be 
gently carried on it to the hiving-sheet. 

If the bees settle too high to be easily reached, the 
basket may be fastened to a pole, and raised directly 
under them ; when a quick upward push will secure most 
of the swarm. When the basket cannot be easily elevated 
to them, it may be carried to the cluster, and the bee- 






BtV ARMING AND HIVING. 135 

keeper, after shaking the bees into it, may gently lower it, 
by a string, to an assistant below. 

When a colony alights on the trunk of a tree, or on 
anything from which they cannot easily be gathered in a 
basket, fasten a leafy bough over them, without jarring, 
by a gimlet, and with a little smoke compel them to ascend 
it. If the place is inaccessible, they will enter a well-shaded 
basket, inverted, and elevated just above the mass of the 
bees. I once hived a neighbor's swarm which settled in 
a thicket, on the inaccessible body of a tree, by throwing 
water upon them, so as to compel them gradually to 
ascend the tree, and enter an elevated box. If proper 
alighting places are not furnished, the trouble of hiving a 
swarm will often be greater than its value. 

If two swarms cluster together, they may be advan- 
tageously kept together, if abundant room for storing 
surplus honey can be given them, as in my hives. Large 
quantities of honey are generally obtained from such 
stocks, if they issue early, and the season is favorable. If 
it is desired to separate them, take two hives, and give a 
portion of the bees to each, sprinkling them, both before 
and after they are shaken from the basket, sufficiently 
to keep them from taking wing to unite again. If possible, 
secure a queen for each hive. If both queens enter the 
same hive, one will quickly dispose of the other. The 
bees in the queenless hive will begin to leave as soon as 
they ascertain their condition. Prevent this, by shutting 
them up ; and give them a queen, if you have one at your 
disposal ; or supply them with a sealed queen, nearly 
mature, taken from another hive. For reasons assigned 
in the next chapter, it will not do to compel them to raise 
a queen from worker-brood. If the Apiarian who uses 
the common hives does not succeed in getting a mature 



136 THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 

queen for each hive, the queenless one will go back to the 
old stock. 

If, while hiving a swarm, the Apiarian wishes to secure 
the queen, the bees should be shaken from the hiving-bas- 
ket, a foot or more from the hive, when a quick eye will 
generally see her as she passes over the sheet. If the 
bees are reluctant to go in, a few must be directed to the 
entrance, and care be taken to brush them back, when 
they press forward in such dense masses that the queen is 
likely to enter unobserved. An experienced eye readily 
detects her peculiar color and form. She may be taken 
up without danger, as she never stings, unless engaged in 
combat with another queen. 

It is interesting to witness how speedily a queen passes 
into the hive, as soon as she recognizes the joyful note 
announcing that her colony has found a home. She 
quickly follows in the direction of the moving mass, and 
her long legs enable her easily to outstrip, in the race for 
possession, all who attempt to follow her. Other bees 
linger around the entrance, or fly into the air, or collect 
in listless knots on the sheet ; but a fertile mother, with 
an air of conscious importance, marches straight forward, 
and looking neither to the right hand nor to the left, glides 
into the hive, with the same dispatchful haste that charac- 
terizes a bee returning fully laden from the nectar-bearing 
fields. 

Persons unaccustomed to bees, may think that I speak 
about " scooping them up," and " shaking them out," al- 
most as coolly as though giving directions to measure so 
many bushels of wheat ; experience will soon convince 
them, that the ease with which they may be managed is 
not at all exaggerated. 

The old-fashioned way of hiving swarms, by mounting 
trees, and cutting off valuable limbs, should be entirely 



Wl 

ft 

on 
on 



SWARMING AND HIVING. 187 

,bandoned; nor should the hive ever be put over the 
bees, so as to crush any of them, or endanger the life of 
the queen. A skillful bee-keeper, with his hiving-basket, 
will often hive six or more swarms, in the time required, by 

e old plan, for hiving one ; and in large Apiaries managed 
on the swarming plan, where a number of swarms come out 
n the same day, and there is constant danger of their 
mixing, this is an object of great importance. 

Dr. Scudamore, an English physician, who has written a 
tract on the Formation of Artificial Swarms, says that he 
once knew as " many as ten swarms go forth at once, and 
settle and mingle together, forming, literally, a monster 
meeting." There are instances recorded of a still larger 
number having clustered together. A venerable cler- 
gyman in Western Massachusetts, told me, that in the 
Apiary of one of his parishioners, five swarms once clus- 
tered together. As he had no hive which would hold 
them, they were put into a large box, roughly nailed 
together. When taken up in the Fall, it was evident that 
the five swarmf had lived together as independent colo- 
nies. Four had begun their works, each near a corner of 
the box, and the fifth in the middle ; and there was a 
distinct interval separating the works of the different 
colonies. In Cotton's " My Bee Book," is a cut illustrat- 
ing a similar separation of two colonies in one hive. By 
hiving, in a large box, swarms which have settled together, 
and leaving them undisturbed till the following morning, 
they would probably be found in separate clusters, and 
might easily be put into different hives. 

Swarming bees make a singular hissing or whispering 
sound, which often causes other hives in the Apiary to 
swarm. This is a frequent occurrence with discouraged 
or dissatisfied stocks, and I have occasionally had swarms 
which had only immature queens in their hive issue, on 



138 THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 

hearing this sound. This peculiar swarming sound may 
be produced merely by the great numbers of bees flying 
idly, at such times, to and fro in the air ; but it seems 
to me to differ in its character, as it certainly does in its 
effect upon the bees, from the noise produced by the 
ordinary flight of busy workers, however numerous. My 
observations on this point, have satisfied me that those 
Apiarians are mistaken who deny to the bee the sense of 
hearing. This sense, on the contrary, seems to be acute. 

If the Apiarian fears that another swarm will issue, to 
unite with the one he is hiving, he may confine its queen 
with my movable-blocks ; or he may quickly envelope the 
swarming hive with a sheet. If his new colony has been 
shaken upon the s warming-sheet, he may cover it from 
the sight of other swarms, with another sheet. 

The hive, with the new swarm, should be removed to 
its permanent stand as^oon as the bees have entered ; or 
the scouts, on their return, will find them, and will 
often entice them to flee to the woods. There is the more 
danger of this, if the bees remained long on the tree be- 
fore they were hived. I have almost invariably found 
that swarms which abandon a suitable hive for the woods, 
were hived near tHe spot where they clustered, the bee- 
keeper intending to remove them in the evening, or early 
next morning. Bees which swarm early in the day, will 
generally begin to range the fields in a few hours after 
they are hived, or even in a few minutes, if they have 
empty comb ; and the fewest bees will be lost, when the 
hive is removed to its permanent stand, as soon as the bees 
have entered it. If it is desirable, for any reason, to re- 
move the hive before all the bees have gone in, the sheet, 
on which the bees are lying, may be so folded that the 
colony can be easily carried to their new stand, where the 
bees may enter at their leisure. 




SWARMING AND HIVING. 139 

Swarms sometimes come off when no suitable hives are 
m readiness to receive them. In such an emergency, 
hive them in any old box, cask, or measure, and place 
them, with suitable protection against the sun, where their 
new hive is to stand ; when this is ready, they may, by a 
quick, jerking motion, be easily shaken out before it, on a 
hiving-sheet. 

I have endeavored, even at the risk of being thought 
too minute, to give such directions as will qualify the 
novice to hive a swarm of bees, under almost any circum- 
stances ; knowing that however necessary, suitable infor- 
mation is seldom found even in the best treatises on bee- 
keeping. Vague or incomplete directions fail, at the very 
moment that the inexperienced attempt to put them into 
practice. 

Natural swarming may, unquestionably, be made highly 
profitable ; and as it is the most obvious way of multiply- 
ing colonies, and requires the least knowledge or skill, it 
will undoubtedly be the favorite method with most bee- 
keepers, for many years, at least. I shall, therefore, show 
how it may be conducted more profitably than ever, by 
the use of my hives ; many of its most embarrassing diffi- 
culties being effectually obviated. 

1. A serious objection to relfance on natural swarming, 
is the vexatious fact, that most swarming-hives are so con- 
structed, that, although bees often refuse to swarm at all, 
they cannot furnish to their crowded occupants the proper 
accommodations for storing honey. Under such cir- 
cumstances, hordes of useless consumers often blacken, 
for months, the outside of the hives, to the great loss of 
their disappointed owners. In the movable-comb hives, 
an abundance of storage-room can always b§ given to the 
bees ; so that, if indisposed to swarm, they have recepta- 
cles easily accessible, and made doubly attractive by empty 



140 THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 

comb, in which to store up any quantity of honey they 
can possibly gather. 

2. Another objection to natural swarming arises from 
the disheartening fact, that bees are liable to swarm so 
often, as to destroy the value Oi both the parent-stock, 
and its after-swarms. Experienced bee-keepers obviate 
this difficulty, by making one good colony out of two 
second swarms, and returning to the parent-stock all 
swarms after the second, and even this if the season is far 
advanced. Such operations often consume more time 
than they are worth. By removing all the queen-cells but 
one, after the first swarm has left, second swarming may 
be prevented in my hives ; and by removing all but two, 
provision may be made for the issue of second swarms, 
and yet all further swarming be prevented. After-swarms, 
in many instances, have to be returned again and again, 
before one queen is allowed by the bees to destroy the 
others. In this way, a large part of the gathering season 
is wasted; as bees often seem unwilling to work with 
their wonted energy, so long as the pretensions of several 
rival queens are unsettled.* 

3. Another very serious objection to natural swarming, 
as practiced with the common hives, is, that it furnishes no 
facilities for making vigorous stocks of late and small 
swarms. The time and money devoted to feeding small 

* Before inventing the movable-comb hive, I obviated, as far as possible, the 
evils of after-swarming, by the following plan: the second swarm, as soon as 
hived, was placed on the top of the parent-stock, or so, that the entrances to the old 
and new colonies would be near together, and face the same way. If a third 
swarm issued, it was added, at sunset, to the second swarm, by placing the hive or 
box containing that swarm, on a sheet, and shaking out the third swarm before its 
entrance. In three or four days — sufficient time being given for the young queens 
to become impregnated — the bees in the after-swarm were added, in the same way, 
to the parent-stock. One queen would quickly kill the other, and the next morn- 
ing, the conjoined swarms being on a familiar spot, would work as well as though 
they had never been separated. The comb which they had built in the new hive 
was used in the spare honey-boxes. 



I 



SWARMING AND HIVING. 141 






colonies are usually wasted ; as the larger portion of them 
never survive the Winter, and most of those that do, 
are so enfeebled as to be of little value. If they escape 
being robbed by stronger stocks, or destroyed by the 
moth, they seldom recruit in season to swarm, and often, 
unless the feeding is repeated a second season, they perish 
at last. Doubtless, many of my readers, from their own 
experience, can indorse every word of these remarks; 
having found the attempt to multiply colonies, by nursing 
and feeding small swarms in the common hives, usually 
attended with nothing but loss and vexation. The more 
of such stocks a man has, the poorer he is ; for by their 
weakness, they constantly tempt his strong swarms to evil 
courses ; until at last, they prefer, as far as they can, to 
live by stealing, rather than by habits of honest industry ; 
and even if the feeble colonies escape being plundered, 
they often become nurseries for raising a supply of moths, 
to infest his Apiary. 

Suitable directions are furnished, in the chapter upon 
Feeding Bees, for building up the smallest after-swarms 
into vigorous stocks, and for strengthening such colonies 
as are feeble in the Spring. 

4. As both the parent-stocks and the after-swarms very 
frequently lose their young queens after swarming, a hive 
by which this misfortune can be easily remedied, will be 
of great service to those who practice natural swarming. 
An intelligent bee-keeper once assured me that he should 
use one movable-comb hive in his Apiary, for this purpose, 
at least, even if it had no merit in other respects. 

5. In the common hives, but little can be done to dis- 
lodge the bee-moth, when it has gained the ascendency ; 
whereas, in mine, it can be easily extirpated. (See 
remarks on the Bee-Moth.) 

6. In the common hives, it is difficult to remove an old 



142 THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 

queen when her fertility is impaired ; whereas, in mine, 
it can easily be done ; and an Apiarian may always have 
queens in the fall vigor of their reproductive powers. 

Intelligent Apiarians will see, from these remarks, that 
with movable-comb hives, natural swarming can be carried 
on with greater certainty than ever before, many of the 
perplexing discouragements under which they have hith- 
erto prosecuted it, being effectually remedied. 




ARTIFICIAL SWARMING. 143 



CHAPTER X. 

ARTIFICIAL SWARMING. 

The numerous efforts made for more than fifty years, 
to dispense with natural swarming, show the anxiety of 
Apiarians to find some better mode of increasing their 
colonies. 

Although, by the control of the combs, bees may be 
propagated by natural swarming, with a rapidity and cer- 
tainty hitherto unattainable, still, there are difficulties in- 
herent to this mode of increase, and therefore incapable of 
being removed by any kind of hive. Before describing 
the various methods which have been contrived for in^ 
creasing colonies by artificial means, these difficulties will 
be briefl y enumerated, so that every bee-keeper may decide 
intelligently which is his best way to multiply his stocks. 

1. The numerous swarms lost every year is a strong 
argument against natural swarming. 

An eminent Apiarian has estimated, that taking into 
account all who keep bees, one-fourth of the best swarms 
are lost every season. While some bee-keepers seldom 
lose a swarm, the majority suffer serious losses by the 
flight of their bees to the woods ; and it is next to impos- 
sible, even for the most careful, to prevent such occur- 
rences, if their bees are allowed to swarm. 

2. Natural swarming is objectionable, on account of the 
time and labor which it requires. 

The Apiary must be closely watched during the whole 
Bwarming-season ; and if this business is intrusted to 
thoughtless children, or careless adults, many swarms will 



144 THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 

be lost. If many colonies are kept, a competent person 
should always be on hand, in the height of the season, to 
attend to the bees. Even the Sabbath cannot be observed 
as a day of rest ; as the bee-keeper is often compelled to 
spend it in hard work among his bees. Although it is as 
proper for him to hive his bees on that day, as it is to take 
care of his other stock, still, the liability to such labor de- 
ters many from Apiarian pursuits. 

Many merchants, mechanics, and professional men, who 
wish to keep bees, cannot superintend them during the 
swarming-season ; and are thus often kept from a pursuit 
intensely fascinating to an inquiring mind.* No man who 
spends some of his leisure in studying the wonderful in- 
stincts of bees, will ever complain that he can find nothing 
to fill up his time, out of the range of his business or the 
gratification of his appetites. Bees may be kept with 
great advantage, even in large cities, and those who are 
debarred from rural pursuits may still listen to their sooth- 
ing hum, and harvest annnally their delicious nectar. 

If the Apiarian could always be at home during the 
swarming-season, it would still be oftentimes very incon- 
venient for him to attend to his bees. The farmer, for 
instance, may be interrupted in the business of hay-mak- 
ing, by the cry that his bees are swarming; and by the 
time he has hived them, perhaps a shower comes up, and 
his hay is injured more than the swarm is worth. Thus, 
the keeping of a few bees, instead of being a source of 
profit, may prove an expensive luxury ; while in a large 
Apiary, the embarrassments are often seriously increased. 
If, after a succession of days unfavorable for swarming, 
the weather becomes pleasant, it often happens that 

* u Bee-life," says Prof. Siebold, " does not merely serve to furnish man with 
wax, honey, and mead, but constitutes an extremely important link in the great 
and most multifariously-composed chain of animal existence." 



Fig. 37. 




Fig. 39. 




Fig. 41. 



Plate XIII. 

Fig. 42. Fig. 38. 





Fig. 43. 



Fig. 40. 




Fig. 59. 



Fig. 49. Fig. 50. 




?ig. 62. Fig. 63. 



Fiff. 64. 



Fig. 05, 








ARTIFICIAL SWARMING. 145 

several swarms rise at once, and cluster together ; and not 
unfrequently, in the noise and confusion, other swarms fly- 
off, and are lost. I have seen the bee-master, under such 
circumstances, so perplexed and exhausted as to be almost 
ready to wish he had never seen a bee. 

3. The multiplying of bees by natural swarming, must, 
in our country, almost entirely prevent the establishment 
of large Apiaries. 

The swarming season is, with most bee-keepers, the 
busiest part of the year, and if they keep a large number 
of swarming-hives, they must devote nearly all their time, 
for a number of weeks, to their supervision ; and at a 
season when labor commands the highest price, they may 
also be obliged to hire additional assistance. 

To keep a few colonies in swarming-hives, often costs 
more than they are worth, while the supervision of a large 
number can be made profitable, only by those who can de- 
vote nearly all the Summer months to their bees. The 
number of such persons, in this country, must be very 
small ; and hence there are few who have succeeded in 
making bee-keeping anything more than a subordinate 
pursuit. 

4. A serious objection to natural swarming, is the dis- 
couraging fact that bees often refuse to swarm at all ; thus 
the Apiarian finds it impossible to multiply his colonies 
with any certainty or rapidity, even although he may be 
favorably situated for conducting bee-culture on an exten- 
sive scale. 

Many of the most careful bee-keepers have fewer stocks 
than they had years ago, although they have sought to 
increase them to the extent of their power. Few in- 
telligent Apiarians believe that there are half as many 
colonies in our Northern and Middle States, as there were 
twenty years ago ; and most of them would abandon bee- 



146 THE HITE AND HONEY-BEE. 

keeping, if they did not regard it as a source of pleasant 
recreation, rather than of pecuniary profit ; while others 
do not hesitate to say that much more money has, of late 
years, been spent upon patent hives, than those who have 
used them have realized from their bees. 

It is an easy matter to make calculations on paper* al- 
most as flattering as an imaginary tour to the gold mines 
of Australia or California. Only purchase a patent bee- 
hive, and if it fulfills the promises of its sanguine inventor, 
a fortune must be realized in a few years ; but such are 
the disappointments resulting from bees refusing to swarm, 
that if the hive could remedy all other difficulties, it would 
still fail to answer the reasonable wishes of the experienced 
Apiarian. If every swarm of bees could be made to yield 
a profit of twenty dollars a year, the bee-keeper could not 
multiply his stocks, by natural swarming, so as to meet 

* The following calculation of possible profits from bee-culture, taken from 
"Sydserff's Treaties on Bees," published in England, in 1792, is a perfect gem of 
its kind : 

"Suppose a swarm of bees at the first to cost 10s. 6d., and neither them nor the 
swarms to be taken, but to do well, and swarm once every year " — bees must be 
naughty, indeed, if they dare to do otherwise ! — " what will be the product for four- 
teen years, and what the profit, if each hive is sold at 10s. 6d.? 

Tears. Hives. Profits. 

£ s.d. 

1 1 

2 2 110 

8 4...., 2 20 

4 8 4 4 

♦ * ** * * * 

14 8192 4300 16 

" N. B. — Deduct 10s. 6d., what the first hive cost, and the remainder will be clear 
profit; supposing the second swarms to pay for hives, labor, &c." The modesty 
with which this writer, who seems to have had as .much faith in his bees as in tho 
doctrine that "figures cannot lie, 1 - 1 closes his calculation at the end of fourteen 
years, is truly refreshing. No bee-keeper, on such a royal road to wealth, could 
ever find it in his heart to stop under twenty-one years, by which time his stocks 
would have increased to more than a million, when, probably, he would be willing 
to close his bee-business, by selling them for over two and three-quarter millions 
of dollars! The attention of all venders of humbug bee-hives, is respectfully in- 
vited to this antique specimen of the art of puffing. 



ARTIFICIAL SWARMING. 147 

tbe demand for them ; but would be entirely dependent 
upon the caprices of his bees, or rather upon the natural 
laws which control their swarming. 

Every practical bee-keeper is aware of the uncertainty 
of natural swarming. Under no circumstances, can it be 
confidently relied on. While some stocks swarm regularly, 
and repeatedly, others, equally strong in numbers, and 
rich in stores, refuse to swarm, even in seasons in all 
respects highly propitious. Such colonies, on examination, 
will often be found to have taken no steps for raising 
young queens. In some cases, the wings of the old 
mother are defective, while in others, she seems to prefer 
the riches of the old hive, to the risks attending the for- 
mation of a new colony. It frequently happens that, when 
all the preparations have been made for swarming, the 
weather proves so unpropitious that the young queens 
approach maturity before the old ones can leave, and are 
all destroyed. Under su<\h circumstances, swarming, for 
that season, is almost certain to be prevented. The young 
queens are also sometimes destroyed, because' of some 
sudden, and perhaps only temporary, suspension of the 
honey-harvest ; for bees seldom colonize, even if all their 
preparations are completed, unless the blossoms are yield- 
ing an abundant supply of honey. From these and other 
causes, which my limits will not permit me to notice, it 
has hitherto been found impossible, in the uncertain clim- 
ate of our Northern States, for any but the most expe- 
rienced and energetic Apiarians, to multiply colonies very 
rapidly by natural swarming. 

The numerous perplexities pertaining to natural swarm- 
ing, have, for ages, directed the attention of cultivators to 
the importance of devising some more reliable method 
for increasing their colonies* 

* Dr. Scudamore quotes Columella, who, about the middle of the first cen- 
tury of the Christian Era, wrote twelve hooka on husbandry— "Z>e re rustica "— a* 



148 THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 

The ancient methods of artificial increase appear to have 
met with little success ; but towards the close of the last 
century, a new interest was awakened on the subject, by 
the discovery of Schirach, a German clergyman, of the 
fact, previously known to a few, that bees are able to rear 
a queen from worker-brood. For want, however, of an 
acquaintance with some important principles in the econ- 
omy of bees, his efforts met with but slender encourage- 
ment. 

Huber, after his splendid discoveries in the physiology 
of the bee, felt the need of some way of multiplying col- 
onies, more reliable than that of natural swarming. His 
hive consisted of twelve frames, each an inch and a quar- 
ter in width, which were connected together by hinges, 
so that any one could be opened or shut at pleasure, like 
the leaves of a book. He recommends forming artificial 
swarms, by dividing one of these hives, and adding six 
empty frames to each half. After using his hive for years, I 
found that it could be made serviceable only by an adroit 
and fearless Apiarian. The bees fasten the frames with 
their propolis, so that they cannot easily be opened, with- 
out jarring the combs, and exciting their anger ; or shut, 
without constant danger of crushing them. Huber no- 
where speaks of having multiplied colonies extensively by 
such hives, and although they have been in use more than 
sixty years, they have never been successfully employed 
for such a purpose. If he had contrived a plan for giving 
his frames the requisite play, by suspending them on 

giving directions for making artificial swarms. Although he taught how to furnish 
a queen to a destitute colony, and how to transfer brood-comb, with maturing 
bees, from a stroug stock to a weak one, he does not appear to have formed entirely 
new colonies by any artificial process. His treatise on bee-keeping shows not only 
that he was well acquainted with previous writers on the subject, but that he was 
also a successful practical Apiarian. Its precepts, with but few exceptions, are 
truly admirable, and prove that in his time bee-keeping, with the masses, must 
have been far in advance of what it now is. 






ARTIFICIAL SWARMING. 149 

rabbets, instead of folding them together like the leaves 
of a book, he would have left much less room for subse- 
quent improvements. 

u Dividing-hives," of various kinds, have been used in 
this country. The principle seems to have all the ele- 
ments of success ; and it was only after protracted experi- 
ments, that I was able to ascertain that, however modi- 
fied, such hives are all practically worthless for purposes 
of artificial swarming. 

It is one of the laws of the hive, that bees which have 
no mature queen, seldom build any cells except such as are 
designed merely for storing honey, and are too large for 
the rearing of workers. Until my perusal of Mr. Wag- 
ner's manuscript translation of Dzierzon, I thought that 
I was the only observer who had noticed the bearing of 
this remarkable fact on artificial swarming. It may, at 
first, seem unaccountable that bees should build only comb 
unfit for breeding, when their young queen will so soon 
require worker-cells for her eggs ; but it must be borne in 
mind, that at such times they are in an " abnormal," or 
unnatural condition. In a state of nature, they seldom 
swarm until their hive is full of comb ; or if they do, their 
numbers are so reduced, that they are rarely able to re- 
sume comb-building, until the young queen has hatched. 

The determination of bees having no mature queen, to 
build comb designed only for storing honey, and unfit for 
rearing workers, shows very clearly the folly of attempt- 
ing to multiply colonies by dividing-hives. Even if the 
Apiarian succeeds in dividing a colony, so that the queen- 
less part proceeds to supply her loss, if it has bees enough 
to build sufficient new comb to make it of any value, it 
will build such as is designed only for storing honey ; using, 
chiefly for breeding purposes, the half of the hive contain- 
ing the old comb. The next year, if this hive is divided, 



150 THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 

one half will contain nearly all the brood, while the 
other, having most of its combs fit only for storing honey, 
or raising drones, will be a complete failure. 

Even with a Huber-hive, the plan of multiplying colo- 
nies by dividing a full hive into two parts, and adding an 
empty half to each, will be found to require a degree of 
skill and knowledge, far in advance of what can be 
expected of ordinary bee-keepers. The same remarks are 
substantially true of all frame or bar-hives which do not 
allow sufficient play between the parts to which the combs 
are attached ; for, as the bees usually build their combs 
slightly waving, and some thicker than others, nearly 
insuperable practical difficulties will be found in making 
the necessary interchanges of comb, in such hives. 

The attempt to multiply colonies by the common divid- 
ing-hives, will be found far more laborious and uncertain 
than by natural swarming. Every practical bee-keeper 
who has given it a fair trial, has been glad to abandon it, 
and return to the old-fashioned way. 

Some Apiarians have attempted to multiply their colo- 
nies, by removing, when thousands of its inmates are rang- 
ing the fields, a strong stock to a new stand, and setting 
in its place an empty hive, with a piece of brood-comb, 
suitable for raising a queen. This method is still worse 
than the one just described. One half of the dividing- 
hive was filled with breeding comb, while this empty hive 
having next to none, all that is built before the queen 
hatches, will be of a size unsuitable for rearing workers. 
The queenless part of the dividing-hive might also have 
contained a young queen almost mature, so that the build- 
ing of large combs would have quickly ceased; for as 
soon as the young queen hatches, the bees commence 
building worker-combs.* When a new colony is formed 

* In attempting to rear artificial swarms by moving a full stock, my bees have 
built combs nearly four inches thick; and have afterwards pieced thoir lower 






ARTIFICIAL SWARMING. 151 

by dividing the old hive, the queenless part has thousands 
of cells filled with brood and eggs, and young bees will be 
hatching for at least three weeks : by this time, the young 
queen will ordinarily be laying eggs, so that there will be 
an interval of not more than three weeks, during which 
the colony will receive no accessions. But when a new 
swarm is formed, in the way above described, not an egg 
will be laid for nearly three weeks, and not a bee hatched 
for nearly six. During all this time, the colony will 
rapidly decrease ;* and by the time the progeny of the 
young queen begins to mature, the new hive will have so 
few bees, that it would seldom be of any value, even if 
its combs were of the best construction. 

After thoroughly testing this last plan of artificial 
swarming, I have found that it has not the least practical 
value ; and as tins is the method which Apiarians have 
usually tried, it is not strange that hitherto, they have 
almost unanimously condemned artificial swarming. 

Another method of artificial swarming has been zeal- 
ously advocated, which, seeming to require the smallest 
amount of labor or skill, would be everywhere practiced, 
if it could only be made effectual. A number of hives are 
to be connected by holes, so as to allow the bees to travel 
from any one to all the others. The bees, on this plan, are 
to colonize themselves, and it is asserted that in due time, 

edge with worker-cells, for the accommodation of the young queen. So uniformly 
do bees with an unhatched queen build coarse, or drone-comb, that often a 
glance at the combs of a new colony, will show either that it is queenless, or that, 
having been so, it has just reared a new queen. It is not necessary that a queen 
should have commenced laying eggs to induce her colony to build worker-cells ; I 
have known a strong swarm with a virgin queen, almost to fill their hive with 
beautiful worker-comb, before a single egg was deposited in the cells. 

* Every observing bee-keeper must have noticed how rapidly even a large 
swarm diminishes in number, for the first three weeks after it has been hived. 
So great is the mortality of bees during the height of the working-season, that 
often, in Ws than that time, it does not contain one half its original number. 



152 THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 

a single swarm, of its own accord, will form a large num- 
ber of independent families, each possessing its own queen, 
and all living in perfect harmony. 

This method, so fascinating in theory, though repeat- 
edly tried with various ingenious modifications, has in 
every instance proved an entire failure. If the bees are 
allowed to pass from one hive to another, they will confine 
their breeding operations mostly to a single apartment, if 
it is of the ordinary size, and will use the others chiefly 
for storing honey. This is almost invariably the case, if 
the additional room is given by collateral or side boxes, 
as the queen seldom enters such apartments for the pur 
pose of breeding ; if, however, the new hive is directly 
below that in which the swarm was first lodged, and the con- 
nections are suitable, she will be almost certain to descend 
and lay her eggs in the new combs, as soon as they are 
begun by the bees. The upper hive being now almost en- 
tirely abandoned by her, the bees fill the cells with honey, 
as fast as the brood is hatched, their instinct impelling 
them to keep their stores of honey, if possible, above the 
breeding-cells. So long as bees have an abundance of 
room below their main hive, they very seldom swarm ; but 
if it is on the sides of their hive, or above them, they often 
swarm rather than take possession of it. In none of these 
cases, however, do they ever form independent colonies, 
if left to themselves. 

The skillful Apiarian may, doubtless, compel his bees to 
rear an artificial colony, by separating from the main hive, 
by a slide, an apartment that happens to contain brood ; 
but unless his hives admit of thorough inspection, as he 
can never know their exact condition, he will be far more 
likely to fail than to succeed. This plausible theory, there- 
fore, to be reduced to even an empirical and precarious 



ARTIFICIAL SWARMING. 153 

practice, requires more skill, care, labor, and time, than 
are necessary to manage the ordinary s warming-hives. 

The failure, on the part of experienced, as well as inex- 
perienced Apiarians, of so many attempts to increase col- 
onies by artificial means, has led many to advocate the 
general use of non-swarming hives. In such hives, very 
large harvests of honey are often obtained from strong 
stocks of bees ; but it is evident that if the formation of 
new colonies were generally discouraged, the insect would 
soon be exterminated. 

Although the movable-comb hive may be made more 
effectually to prevent swarming than any with which I am 
acquainted, still there are some objections to the non- 
swarming plan which cannot be removed. To say nothing 
of its preventing the increase of stocks, bees usually work 
with diminished vigor, after they have been kept in a non- 
swarming hive for several seasons. This will be obvious 
to any one who will compare the super-abounding energy 
of a new swarm, with the more sluggish working of even 
a much stronger non-swarming stock. 

An old queen, whose fertility has become impaired, can 
be easily caught and removed, in the movable-comb hive ; 
but when hives are used in which this cannot be done, the 
Apiary will contain queens that have passed their prime, 
and some which may die when there are no eggs from 
which others can be reared. 

On no subject has the author of this work experimented 
more fully than on that of Artificial Swarming ; and those 
bee-keepers to whom this chapter may, at first, seem need- 
lessly diffuse, will find that it contains many important 
principles, which, in any other connection, would probably 
have required even more fullness of detail. 

Before detailing the various methods of Artificial 
Swarming which may be practiced in the movable-comb 



154 THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 

hives, I shall describe one which may be used with almost 
any hive, by those who have sufficient confidence to man- 
age bees. 

About the season of natural swarming, what I shall 
call a forced swarm, may be obtained from a populous 
stock,* by the following process. Choose that part of a 
pleasant day, when many bees are abroad, and if any are 
clustered on the bottom-board or outside of the hive, puff 
among them a few whiffs of smoke — that from spunk is 
best — so as to drive them up among the combs. The bees 
will go up more readily if the hive is tipped back, or ele- 
vated by small wedges, about one-quarter of an inch above 
the bottom-board. Have in readiness a box — which I shall 
call the forcing-box — whose diameter is about the same 
with that of the hive from which you intend to drive the 
swarm. Lift the hive from its bottom-board without the 
slightest jar, turn it over, and carefully carry it off about 
a rod, as bees, if disturbed, are much more inclined to be 
peaceable, when removed a short distance from their fami- 
liar stand. If the hive is gently placed upside down on 
the ground, scarcely a bee will fly out, and there will be 
little danger of being stung. The timid and inexperienced 
should protect themselves with a bee-dress, and may 
gently sprinkle the bees with sugar-water, or blow more 
smoke among them, as soon as the hive is inverted. After 
placing it on the ground, the forcing-box must be put over 
it, and every opening between it and the hive, from which 
a bee might escapef, should be stopped with paper, or any 
convenient material. The forcing-box, if smooth inside, 

* u Driving succeeds best in warm weather, and with populous stocks ; for if 
the combs be not worked down to the floor-board, the bees are apt to collect in the 
open space instead of ascending into the upper box."-— Bevan. 

t In my own practice, I use a box, the inside edges of which are beveled, to 
facilitate the ascent of the bees, and the back hinged, so that it can be opened for 
seeing the queen as she goes up with them. The few bees that may escape, even if 
not full of honey, are too bewildered by their change of position, to make any attack. 






ARTIFICIAL SWARMING. 155 



should have slats fastened one-third of the distance from 
the top, to aid the bees in clustering. 

As soon as the Apiarian has confined the bees, he should 
place an empty hive — which I shall call the decoy-hive — 
upon their old stand, which those returning from the 
fields may enter, instead of dispersing to other hives, to 
meet, perhaps, with a most ungracious reception. As a 
general rule, however, a bee with a load of honey or 
bee-bread, after the extent of his resources is ascertained, 
is pretty sure to be welcomed by any hive to. which he 
may carry his treasure ; while a poverty-stricken unfortu- 
nate that presumes to claim their hospitality is, usually, at 
once destroyed. The one meets with as flattering a recep- 
tion as a wealthy gentleman proposing to take up his 
abode in a country village, while the other is as much an 
object of dislike as a poor man, who bids fair to become a 
public charge. 

To return to our imprisoned bees : their hive should be 
beaten smartly with the palms of the hands, or two small 
rods, on the sides to which the combs are attached, so a? 
to run no risk of loosening* them. These "rappings," 
although not of a very a spiritual " character, produce, 
nevertheless, a decided effect upon the bees. Their first 
impulse, if no smoke were used, would be to sally out, 
and wreak their vengeance on those who thus rudely assail 
their honied dome ; but as soon as they inhale its fumes, 
and feel the terrible concussions of their once stable abode, 
a sudden fear that they are to be driven from their treas- 
ures, takes possession of them. Determined to prepare 
for this unceremonious writ of ejection, by carrying off 
what they can, each bee begins to lay in a supply, and m 

* There is little danger of loosening the combs of an old stock, but the greatest 
caution is necessary when the combs of a hive are new. If, in inverting such a 
hive, the broad sides of the combs, instead of their edges,&re inclined downwards, 
the heat, and weight of the bees, may loosen the combs, and ruin the stock. 



156 THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEK, 

about five minutes, all are filled to their utmost capacity. 
A prodigious humming is now heard, as they begin to 
mount into the upper box ; and in about fifteen minutes 
from the time the rapping began- — if it has been continued 
with but slight intermissions — the mass of the bees, with 
their queen, will hang clustered in the forcing-box, like 
any natural swarm, and may, at the proper time, be readily 
shaken out, on a sheet, in front of their intended hive. 

If the forced swarm could now be put on the old stand, 
and the parent-hive removed to a new place in the Apiary ; 
or if the latter could be returned to its usual position, and 
the former be put somewhere else, it would simplify very 
much the making of artificial swarms. Neither method, 
however, can be pursued without serious loss ; for if the 
position of a colony has been changed by the bee-keeper, 
the bees will not adhere to the new place, as they do 
when they swarm of their own accord. 

In every case when the position of its hive has been 
changed, each bee, as it sallies out, flies with its head 
turned towards it, that by marking the surrounding 
objects, it may find its way back. If, however, the bees 
did not emigrate of their own free will, most of them 
appearing to forget that their location has been changed, 
return to the familiar spot ; for it would seem that, 

" A ' bee removed ' against its will, 
Is of the same opinion still. " 

Should the Apiarian, ignorant of this fact, place the 
forced swarm on the old stand, and remove the parent- 
stock to a new place, the latter would lose so many of the 
bees which ought to be retained in it, that most of its 
unsealed brood would perish from neglect. If, on the 
contrary, he should remove the forced swarm to a new 
position, it would bp so depopulated as to be of little value. 



ARTIFICIAL SWARMING. 157 

These difficulties may be obviated by removing either 
colony about half a mile from its former home, in which 
case, if forage is abundant, nearly all will remain in their 
proper hive. Some recommend that they should be car- 
ried off at least three miles; but I have found that this is 
unnecessary, unless there is a deficiency of blossoms in 
the immediate vicinity of their new home. If the colonies 
are carried off, the precautions given elsewhere* for mov- 
ing bees must be carefully followed ; also the directions 
for retaining a sufficient number of bees in the parent- 
stock. Those not carried off must be put on their old 
stands. 

As the transportation of colonies is laborious, and often- 
times expensive, I shall describe the methods which, after 
years of experimenting, I have devised for dispensing with 
it. I have ascertained that, if a hive is removed, most 
of the bees returning from abroad and alighting upon a 
neighboring hive, if kindly received, will not go back to 
their former stand. Even the temporary loss of their old 
home is followed by a distraction which makes on them 
such a permanent impression, that they mark their new 
location as carefully as a new swarm. Now I find that, 
on the same principle, nearly all the bees which have 
returned from the fields, while a swarm is being forced 
from the parent-hive, will enter this hive if it is put upon 
its old stand, and adhere to it afterwards wherever it may 
be placed. 

As soon, therefore, as the bee-keeper has forced a swarm, 
the forcing-box must be gently lifted off, and set in a 
shady place where the bees will have plenty of air. The 
parent-stock should now be put, without crushing any bees, 
on the old stand, so that all which have returned from 
foraging may enter it. The bees, which before this were 

* The copious alphabetical index at the end, makes it easy to refer to any sub- 
ject discussed in this book. 



158 THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. • 

running in and out of the decoy-hive, in a state of the 
greatest distraction, will crowd into their old home, and 
afterwards adhere to it wherever placed! It should now 
be removed to a new stand, and its entrance* closed until 
sunset. Unless this precaution is adopted, the bees in 
other hives, ascertaining its weak and queenless condition, 
may attempt to rob it. 

If the stock from which the artificial colony was driven, 
were intending to swarm, it will contain maturing queens, 
one of which will soon take the place of the old one, as in 
natural swarming. If no royal cells were in progress, the 
bees will proceed to construct them. • 

Artificial colonies should not be formed until drones 
have made their appearance, or the young queen may fail 
to be impregnated, and the parent-stock may perish. 

We return now to our forced swarm. The bees should 
be shaken out of the forcing-box, and hived like a new 
swarm, when, if placed on their old stand, they will work 
as vigorously as a natural swarm. If they were driven, 
at first, into a hivts which will suit the Apiarian, it may be 
returned to their old location, without disturbing the 
bees. 

If, in driving the swarm, or in transferring it from the 
forcing-box, the queen was not seen, it may be certainly 
known, in from five to fifteen minutes after the bees have 
entered their new hive, whether or not she is with them. 

As soon as the bees are clustered in the hive, if they 
do not find her, a few will come out and run about, as 
if anxiously searching for something they have lost. The 
alarm is rapidly communicated to the whole colony; the 

* In closing the entrance, the bee-keeper will see that sufficient air is admitted, 
but not enough to chill the brood. If the weather should suddenly become very 
cool, and the hive is quite thin, it will be advisable to cover it with something that 
will aid in preserving its internal heat. The same precautions are often important 
in hives which have swarmed naturally 






ARTIFICIAL SWARMING. 159 

explorers are rapidly reinforced, the ventilators suspend 
their operations, and soon the air is filled with bees. If 
they cannot find the queen, they return to their old stand, 
and if no hive is there, will soon enter one of the adjoin- 
ing colonies. If their queen is restored to them soon 
after they miss her, those running out of the hive Will 
make a half-circle, and return; the joyful news is quickly 
communicated to those on the wing, who forthwith alight 
and enter the hive ; all appearance of agitated running 
about on the outside of the hive, ceases, and ventilation, 
with its joyful hum, is again resumed.* If the bees re- 
main quiet in the new hive, for about fifteen minutes, the 
queen is almost certainly with them. 

If the Apiarian, in making his artificial swarm, does not 
see the queen, he must wait until the bees show, by their 
conduct, whether she is with them or not. If they begin 
to leave the hive, the entrance must be closed, to confine 
them until the parent-stock can be drummed again, and 
the queen, if possible, secured. If she cannot be induced 
to leave the parent-stock, and another cannot be had to 
supply her place, the bees must be returned, and the 
driving resumed at another time. A queen, however, 
which does not go up the first time, is very apt to persist 
in her refusal. 

In forcing a swarm, I have directed that it be done when 

* To witness these interesting proceedings, it is only necessary to catch the 
queen, and keep her until she is missed by her colony. For greater security, I 
usually confine her, when taken from the bees, in a small paper-funnel, with 
twisted ends, from which she may be easily taken. 

It is a mistake to suppose that a swarm will not enter a hive unless the queen 
is with them. If some start for it, the others will speedily follow, all seeming to 
take foi granted that the queen is somewhere among them. Even after they 
begin to disperse in search of her, they may often be induced to return, by pour- 
ing out a fresh lot of bees, which, by entering the hive with fanning wings, cause 
the others to believe that the queen is coming at last. 

Bees which miss their queen, under such circumstances, will accept of any one 
vim may be offered them ; and may often be pacified with worker-comb. 



160 THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 

many workers are abroad, in order that they may be 
induced to adhere to the parent-stock. Many bee-keepers, 
however, may prefer to make their swarms early in the 
morning, or late in the afternoon, when few bees are at 
work. In this case, a proper number of adherents may be 
obtained for the parent-stock, by shaking out the bees from 
the forcing-box on a sheet, that as they enter the hive 
in which they are permanently to reside, many may take 
wing, and return to the decoy-hive. If the number is still 
too small, after most of the bees have entered the new 
hive, the sheet with some adhering to it may be carried to 
the decoy-hive. After these bees show that they miss 
their queen, by running in great confusion in and out and 
over the hive, the parent-hive must be presented to them, 
and when they have entered it, removed to a new position 
in the Apiary, and the forced swarm returned to the old 
stand. If one-quarter of the bees are left in the parent- 
stock, the supply will be ample ; larger, indeed, than is 
usually left in natural swarming. 

If there are in the Apiary several old stocks standing 
close together, it is highly desirable in performing these 
various operations, that the decoy-hive,* and that for the 
forced swarm, should be of the same shape and even color 
with that of the parent-stock. If they are very unlike, and 
the returning bees attempt to enter a neighboring hive, 
because it resembles their old home, the adjoining hives 
should have sheets thrown over them, to hide them from 
the bees, until the operation is completed. 

I have sometimes obtained a supply of adhering bees 
for the parent-stock, by placing it on the old stand, and 
removing the forced swarm to a new location. The larger 
part of the bees will of course return to their former home ; 
some, however, will remain with their queen, and begin to 
labor in the new hive. In two or three days, exchange the 



ARTIFICIAL SWARMING. 161 

position of the two hives, when enough bees which have 
become accustomed to the new place, will return to it, to 
carry on their operations in the parent-stock. This plan 
has the advantage of retaining most of the bees in the 
parent-stock, until the cells for rearing young queens are 
begun ; it will also suit bee-keepers who are pressed for 
time, and are obliged to force their stocks, early in the 
morning or late in the afternoon, when but few bees are 
abroad in the fields. 

If the parent-stock stands at some distance from others, 
and resembles in shape, size, and color, that intended for 
the forced swarm, a proper division of the bees may be 
effected as follows : Place the parent-stock about six inches 
to the right of the old stand, and the forced swarm as far 
to the left ; so that the position of the old entrance shall 
be about equally distant from each. If either colony con- 
tains too few bees, it may be moved a little nearer to the 
old entrance ; or it may be reinforced, after the bees have 
gone to work, by closing the entrance of the stronger hive 
until dark. 

If the old stocks stand close together, some prefer 
another mode of forming the artificial swarm. After the 
bees have been driven from the parent-stock, the forced 
swarm is at once placed on the old stand, while the parent- 
stock in which the proper number of bees has been left, 
is set in a cool place, and shut up — care being taken to 
give them air — until late in the afternoon of the third day. 
It may now be put on its permanent stand, and opened an 
hour or two before sunset, when the bees will take wing 
almost as if intending to swarm. Some will join the 
forced swarm on the old stand, but most, after hovering a 
short time in the air, will re-enter their hive. While the 
entrance was closed, thousands of young bees were hatch- 
ed, and these, knowing no other home, will all unite in the 



162 THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 

labors of th 3 hive. The imprisoned bees ought to be 
supplied with water, to enable them to prepare food for 
the larvae. In the common hive this maybe injected with 
a straw through a gimlet-hole. 

Where artificial swarming is practiced on a large scale, 
I have devised a plan which I very much prefer to any pre- 
viously described. Let the Apiarian obtain a forced swarm* 
from some bee-keeper, a mile or two off, or from one of 
his own stocks, carried that distance before the bees began 
to work in the Spring. Bringing it home, according to 
the directions subsequently given for transporting bees, 
let it be confined in a cool place, so as to have plenty of 
air. Late in the afternoon, or early next morning, let him 
force four or fivef swarms, placing them, at once, on the 
stands of the parent-stocks, and these latter where it is in- 
tended they shall permanently remain. The forced swarm, 
brought from a distance, should now be shaken out on a 
sheet, a foot or more from a hive, and gently sprinkled, so 
as to prevent any bees from taking wing. With a saucer, 
scoop up, without hurting any of them, as many bees as 
you can, and carry them to the mouth of one of the old 
stocks, from which you have driven a swarm. Continue 
to do this, until you have about equally apportioned the 
bees, and if any remain on the sheet, carry it to the mouth 
of the hive which has received the least.J These bees, 
having no previous home in your Apiary, will adhere to 
the different hives in which they are placed, and thus, 

* If he delays artificial swarming until natural swarms begin to issue, he may 
use them in the same way. 

t An expert will force them all in the time usually taken by a novice to force 
one. As soon ae a forcing-box is placed over one hive, he will remove another 
Vom its 6tand, and then the rest, and in drumming them will pass from one to 
another, so as to lose not a moment's time in the whole operation. Ten artificial 
swarms, or even more, may be made, in this way, in less than an houi after sun* 
rise or before sunset. 

X The queen should be looked for, and the hive noted to which she is given. If 
she has entered the empty hive, she may be easily secured. 



ARTIFICIAL SWARMING. 163 

without any further trouble, your parent-stocks and forced 
swarms will alike prosper. 

One great advantage which this method has over all 
others, is, that it secures, so simply and effectually, the 
necessary number of bees for the parent-stocks. Inexpe- 
rienced persons, instead of being perplexed to know how 
many bees they shall leave in the forced stocks, may drive 
from them, if they can, every bee. If the bee-keeper can- 
not conveniently obtain a swarm from a distance, he may 
use, for this purpose, the first natural swarm which comes 
off in his own Apiary ; and by delaying to make artificial 
colonies until natural swarms begin to issue, every such 
swarm may be used for forming at least four artificial 
swarms. Or, by the method recommended by Dr. Don- 
hoff, of Germany, he may secure a colony, which, when 
divided in the way above mentioned, will adhere to 
their new locations : " On an evening, when the next 
day promises to be clear and warm, drive out a swarm, 
and set it in the place of the parent-stock. Next day, 
when it is warm, pour some honey among the bees in 
the box, and in a few hours they will swarm."* 

The directions given for the formation of artificial colo- 
nies, differ, in some important respects, from any furnished 
by other writers, and are so simple that any one accustomed 
to handle bees can easily follow them. They enable the 

* A forced swarm may be made to adhere to its new location as follows : Secure 
their queen, when they are shaken out of the hive ; and when they show that 
they miss her, confine them to their hive, until their agitation has reached its 
height. Then open the hive, and as the bees begin to take wing, present to them 
their queen (see p. 159). When they have clustered around her, they may be 
treated like a natural swarm. To do this with every forced swarm would take 
too much time; but it would answer well when the forced swarm is to be 
divided, as above, into four or five parts. 

Mr. P. J. Mahan, of Philadelphia, informs mo that he has several times suc- 
ceeded in making an old colony adhere to a new place in the Apiary, by beating 
the hive, after the bees have been shut in, even at the risk of slightly injuring some 
of its combs. When it is opened, the bees will fly out in great numbers, Dut 
nearly all will return to their hive on the new stand. 



164 THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 

Apiarian, let him use what hive he will, to be entirely 
independent of natural swarming. 

It will be obvious, however, that artificial swarming, to 
be successful, requires a knowledge of the laws which con- 
trol the breeding of bees. Those, therefore, who are ig- 
.norant of the economy of the bee-hive, cannot safely 
depart from the old-fashioned mode of management ; as 
emergencies which they are unprepared to meet, may at 
any moment occur. An Apiarian may use the common 
hives* a whole life-time, and, unless he gains his infor- 
mation from other sources, may yet remain ignorant of 
some of the most important principles in the physiology 
of the honey-bee: while any intelligent cultivator may, 
with movable-combs, in a single season, verify for himself 
the discoveries which have been made only by the accu- 
mulated toil of many observers, for more than two thou- 
sand years. 

By the aid of movable-comb hives, artificial swarming 

* " An opportunity of beholding the proceedings of the queen, in hives of the 
usual form, is so very rarely afforded, that many Apiarians have passed their lives 
without enjoying it; and Eeaumur himself, even with the assistance of a glass-hive, 
acknowledges that he was many years before he had that pleasure." — Bevan. 

Swammerdam, who wrote his wonderful treatise on bees, before the invention 
of glass hives, was obliged to tear hives to pieces in making his investigations ! 
When we see what important results these great geniuses obtained, with means so 
Imperfect, if compared with the facilities which the veriest tyro may now possess, 
it ought to teach us a becoming lesson of humility. 

The sentiments of the following extract from Swammerdam, ought to be 
engraven upon the hearts of all engaged in investigating the works of God : " 1 
would not have any one think that I say this from a love of fault-finding * — he had 
been criticising some incorrect drawings and descriptions — " my sole design is to 
have the true face and disposition of Nature exposed to sight. I wish others may 
pass the like censure, when due, on my works ; for I doubt not that I have made 
many mistakes, although I can, from the heart, say, that I have not, in this treatise 
designed to mislead. * * * The desire of writing is so prevalent, that men publish 
books filled only with the fancies of their brain, and thus misrepresent God and 
his works. God forbid that I should ever do this. Truth, and a religious scrupu- 
lousness of mind, ought everywhere to prevail in describing natural things ; for 
they are the Bibles of the divine miracles. If he who writes aims to deceive him* 
self and others., let him know that in due time all things will be revealed." 



ARTIFICIAL SWARMING. 165 

ay be easily and quickly performed. An empty hive, 
ith its frames properly arranged, must be in readiness to 
receive the new swarm; and before carrying the parent- 
stock from its stand, a little smoke should be puffed into 
the entrance, which should then be closed with the 
movable-blocks. Remove, now, one or two of the tins 
that cover the holes on the spare honey-board (PL VIII., 
Fig. 21), and blow smoke into the hive, until the bees 
begin to make a loud humming, when the honey-board 
may be loosened with a knife, and safely removed, care 
being taken to set it on its edge, so as not to crush the 
bees with which its under surface is usually covered. No 
danger need be apprehended from these bees, as they are 
completely bewildered by their sudden exposure to the 
light, and removal from the hive. Any of the large 
" supers "* used in my hives, or any other box of suitable 
dimensions, may now be set over the bees, into which 
they may be driven, in the way described on page 155. A 
little more smoke blown into the entrance of the hive, 
will obviate the necessity of much rapping, and materially 
quicken the ascent of the bees.f After they have been 
driven from the parent-stock, the directions must be fol- 
lowed which have already been so minutely described. 

Whenever the bee-keeper learns how to handle safely 
the movable-frames — full directions for doing which will 
soon be given — he may dispense with the forcing-box, and 
make his swarms by lifting out the frames from the parent- 
stock, and shaking the bees from them, by a quick jerking 
motion, upon a sheet, directly in front of the new hive. 
As soon as a comb is deprived of its bees, it should be re- 
turned to the parent-stock. If one or two combs contain- 

* This term Is used by Apiarians to designate any upper box placed over the 
main lower-hive. An empty hive, like that in PI. L, Fig. 1., or a hive like that [u 
PL III., Fig. 2. — if inverted — will answer for a forcing-box. 

t Time will be saved by arranging (p. 162) to force several swarms a* once. 



1G6 THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 

ing brood, eggs, and stores, are given to the forced swarm, 
it will be much encouraged, and will need no feeding, if 
the weather should be unfavorable. In removing the 
frames, the bee-keeper should look for the queen, and give 
the comb on which she is, to the forced swarm, without 
shaking off the bees. If he does not see her on the 
combs, he will seldom fail to notice her, after a little prac- 
tice, as she is shaken on the sheet, and crawls towards the 
new hive. The queen is seldom left on a frame after it 
has been shaken so that most of the bees fall off. As soon 
as the necessary number of bees have been transferred to 
the new hive, the precautions previously given must be 
used to obtain adhering bees for the parent-stock. 

If the proper allowance of bees is secured for the parent- 
stock by the method described on page 162, the hive for 
the forced swarm may be placed at once on the old stand, 
and the bees from the parent-stock shaken from the frames 
upon a sheet, so placed that they can easily run into their 
new hive. 

If the forced swarms were made a short time before 
natural swarming would have taken place, some of the 
parent-stocks will contain a number of maturing queens, 
which may be removed, a few days before hatching, and 
given to such as have started none. 

By making a few forced swarms, about a week or ten 
days before the time in which the most are to be made, 
there will be an abundance of sealed queens, almost ma- 
ture, so that every parent-stock may have one. If an un- 
hatched queen can be given, on her frame, to each stock 
that needs it, so much the better ; but if there are not 
enough frames with sealed queens, while some contain two 
or more, the bee-keeper must proceed as follows : 

With a sharp pen-knife, carefully remove apiece of comb, 
an inch or more square, that contains a queen-cell ; and in 






ARTIFICIAL SWARMING. 167 



one of the combs of the hive to which this cell is to be 
given, cut a place just large enough to receive and hold it 
in a natural position. If it is not secure, apply, with a 
feather, a little melted wax, where the edges meet, and 
the bees will soon fasten it to suit themselves. 

Unless very great care is used in transferring a royal 
cell, its inmate will be destroyed, as her body, until she is 
nearly mature, is so exceedingly soft, that a slight com- 
pression of her cell — especially near the base, where there 
is no cocoon — generally proves fatal. For this reason, it 
is best to defer removing them, until they are within three 
or four days of hatching. A queen-cell, nearly mature, 
may be known by its having the wax removed from the 
lid, by the bees, so as to give it a brown appearance. 

The forcing of a swarm ought not to be attempted 
when the weather is so cool as to chill the brood ; and 
never unless there is sufficient light not only to enable the 
Apiarian to see distinctly, but for the bees that take wing 
to direct their flight to the entrance of their hive. Bees 
are always much more irascible when their hives are dis- 
turbed after it is dark, and as they cannot see where to 
fly, they will alight on the person of the bee-keeper, who 
will be almost sure to be stung. It is seldom that night- 
work is attempted upon bees, without the operator having 
occasion to repent his folly. If the weather is not too 
cool, early in the morning, before the bees are stirring, is 
the best time for most, operations, as there will then be 
the least danger of annoyance from robber-bees. 

To some of my readers, it may appear almost incredible 
that bees can be dealt with in the summary ways that 
have been described, without becoming greatly enraged ; 
so far, however, is this from being the case, that in my 
operations, I often use neither smoke, sugar-water, nor 
bee-dress, although I by no means advise the neglect of 



168 THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 

such precautions. While the timid, if unprotected, are al- 
most sure to be stung, there is something in the determined 
aspect and movements of a courageous and skillful opera- 
tor, that seems often to strike bees with instant terror, so 
that they become perfectly submissive to his will. 

Artificial swarms may be created wiCh. perfect safety, 
even at mid-day, as the thousands of bees returning with 
their loads, never make an attack, while those at home can 
be easily pacified. 

The arrangement which permits the top of the movable- 
comb hive to be easily removed, and the sugar-water to 
be sprinkled upon the bees, before they attempt to take 
wing, has great advantages. If the hive opened on the 
side, like Dzierzon's, it would be impossible to make the 
sweetened water run down between all the ranges of 
comb, and it would be necessary to use smoke* in every 
operation. The use of smoke frequently causes the queen 
to leave the combs, for greater security. This often causes 
great delay in the formation of artificial swarms by 
removing the frames, and in operations where it is de- 
sirable to catch the "queen, or to examine her upon the 
comb. 

Huber thus speaks of the pacific effect produced upon 
the bees by the use of his leaf-hive : " On opening the 
hive, no stings are to be dreaded, for one of the most 
singular and valuable properties attending my construc- 
tion, is its rendering the bees tractable. I ascribe their 
tranquillity to the manner in which they are affected by 
the sudden admission of light; they appear rather to 
testify fear than anger. Many retire, and entering the 
cells, seem to conceal themselves." Huber has here fallen 

* After using smoke sometimes two or three times a day, to open a hive upon 
which I was experimenting, I found that, at last, the cunning creatures, instead of 
filling themselves with honey, rushed out to attack me! A colony will never 
refuse the sweetened water, however often it may be presented to them. 



Fig. 47. 



Platb XIV. 




ARTIFICIAL SWARMIJSG. 169 

into an error which he probably would not have made, 
had he used his own eyes. The bees are, indeed, bewil- 
dered by the sudden admission of light, and will enter 
the cells, unless provoked by a sudden jar, or the breath 
of the operator ; not, however, " to conceal themselves ;" 
but imagining that their sweets, thus unceremoniously ex- 
posed, are to be taken from them, they gorge themselves 
almost to bursting, to save what they can. They will 
always appropriate the contents of the open cells, as soon 
as their frames are removed from the hive. 

It is not merely the sudden admission of light, but its 
introduction from an unexpected quarter, that for the time 
disarms the hostility of the bees. They appear, for a few 
moments, almost as much confounded as a man would be, 
if, without any warning, the roof and ceiling of his house 
should suddenly be torn from over his head. Before they 
recover from their amazement, the sweet libation* is 
poured upon them, and their surprise is quickly changed 
into pleasure ; or they are saluted with a puff of smoke, 
which, by alarming them for the safety of their treasures, 
induces them to snatch whatever they can. In the work- 
ing season, the bees near the top are gorged with honey; 
and those coming from below are met in their threatening 
ascent, either by an avalanche of nectar, which, like u a 
soft answer," most effectually " turneth away wrath," or a 
harmless smoke, which excites their fears, but leaves no 
unpleasant smell behind. No genuine lover of bees ought 
ever to use the sickening fumes of tobacco. 

The greatest care should be taken to repress, by the 

* If, when the hive is first opened, honey-water is used, instead of sugar -water 
or smoke, in sprinkling the bees, its smell will be very apt to entice marauders 
from other hives. When the honey-harvest is abundant — and this is the best time 
for forcing swarms — bees are seldom inclined to rob, if proper precautions arc 
It is sometimes difficult to induce them to notice honey-combs, even when put in 
un exposed situation. 

8 



170 THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 

sweetened water or smoke, the first manifestations of 
anger ; for as bees communicate their sensations to each 
other with almost magic celerity, while a whole colony 
will quickly catch the pleased or subdued notes uttered by 
a few, it will be roused to instant fury by the shrill note 
of anger from a single bee. When once they are thor- 
oughly excited, it will be found very difficult to subdue 
them, and the unfortunate operator, if inexperienced, will 
often abandon the attempt in despair. 

It cannot be too deeply impressed upon the beginner, 
that nothing irritates bees more than breathing upon 
them or jarring their combs. Every motion should be 
deliberate, and no attempt whatever made to strike at 
them. If inclined to be cross, they will often resent even 
a quick pointing at them with the finger, by darting upon 
it, and leaving their stings behind. A novice, or a person 
liable to be stung, will, of course, protect his face and 
hands. 

Directions have been given (p. 165), for removing the 
spare honey-board from the hive. As soon as it is dis- 
posed of, the Apiarian should sprinkle the bees w r ith the 
sweet solution. This should descend from the watering- 
pot in a fine stream, so as not to drench the bees, and 
should fall upon the tops of the frames, as well as between 
the ranges of comb. The bees, accepting the proffered 
treat, will begin to lap it up, as peaceably as so many 
chickens helping themselves to corn. While they are 
thus engaged, the frames which have been glued fast to 
the rabbets by the bees, must be very gently pried loose ; 
this may be done without any serious jar, and wdthout 
wounding or enraging a single bee ; the rabbets being 
wide enough to allow the frames to be pried from the 
rear to the front, or vice versa. If the rabbets were only 
just wide enough to receive the shoulders of the frames, 



ARTIFICIAL SWARMING. 171 

it would be necessary, in loosening the frames, to pry 
them laterally, or towards each other, by which they 
might be brought so close together, as to crush the bees, 
injure the brood, disfigure the combs, or even kill the 
queen. 

The frames may be all loosened for removal in less than 
a minute $ by this time the sprinkled bees will have filled 
themselves, or if all have not, the intelligence that sweets 
have been furnished, will diffuse an unusual good nature 
through the honied realm. The Apiarian should now 
gently push the third frame from either end of the hive, a 
little nearer to the fourth frame ; and then the second as 
near as lie can to the third, to get ample room to lift out 
the end one, without crushing its comb, or injuring any 
of the bees. To remove it, he should take hold of ?ts two 
shoulders which rest upon the rabbets, and carefully lift 
it, so as to crush no bees by letting it touch the sides of 
the hive, or the next frame. If it is desired to remove 
any particular frame, room must be gained by moving, in 
the same way, the adjoining ones on each side. As bees 
usually build their combs slightly waving, it will be found 
impossible to remove a frame safely, without making room 
for it in this way ; and if the tops of the frames have not 
sufficient play on the rabbets, and between each other, 
the frames cannot be lifted out of the hive, without crush- 
ing the combs, and killing the bees. In handling the 
frames, be careful not to incline them from their perpen- 
dicular, or the combs will be liable to break from their 
own weight, and fall out of the frames. 

If more combs are to be examined, after lifting out the 

* Without smoke or sweetened water, ten minutes may be spent in opening and 
shutting a single frame in a Huber-hive, and even then some of the bees will 
probably be crushed. The great caution recommended by Huber in opening his 
hives, shows that he did not know how to make himself independent of the anger 
of the bees. 



172 



THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEK. 



outside frame, set it carefully on end, near the hive,* 
when the second one may be easily moved towards the 
vacant space, and lifted out. After examination, put it in 
the place of the one first removed ; in the same way, 
examine the third, and put it in place of the second, and 
so proceed until all have been examined. If the bees are 
to be removed, they must, of course, be shaken off on a 
sheet, as previously described. If the comb first taken 
out will fit, it may be put in the place of that last taken 
out ; if it will not fit, and cannot be made to do so by a 
little trimming, the frames must be slid on the rabbets 
back to their former places, when this first comb may be 
returned to its old position. 

The inexperienced operator, who sees that the bees 
have built some small pieces of comb between the outside 
of the frames, and the sides of the hive, or slightly fastened 
together some parts of their combs, may imagine that 
the frames cannot be removed at all. Such slight attach- 
ments, however, offer no practical difficulty to their 
removal.f The great point to be gained, is to secure a 
single comb on each frame ; and this is effected by the 
use of the triangular comb-guides. 

If bees were disposed to fly away from their combs, as 
soon as they are taken out, instead of adhering to them 
with such remarkable tenacity, it would be far more diffi- 
cult to manage them ; but even if their combs, when re- 



* If the frames, as they are removed, are put into an empty hive, they may t^e 
protected from the cold, and from robber-bees. 

t If sufficient room for storing surplus honey is not given to a strong stock, in . 
Its anxiety to amass as much as possible, it will fill the smallest accessible places. 
If the bees build comb between the tops of the frames, and the under side of the 
spare honey-board, it can be easily cut off, and used for wax. If this shallow 
chamber were not used, they would fasten the honey -board to the frames so tightly, 
that it would be very difficult to remove it; and every time it was taken off, they 
would glue it still faster, so that, at last, it would be well nigh impossible, in 
getting it off, not to start the frames so as to crush the bees between the combs. 




ARTIFICIAL SWARMING. 173 

moved, are all arranged in a continued line, the bees, instead 
of leaving them, will stoutly defend them against the 
thieving pi Dpensities of other bees. 

In returning the frames, care must be taken not to 
crush the bees between them and the rabbets on which 
they rest ; they should be put in so slowly, that a bee, on 
feeling the slightest pressure, may have a chance to creej 
from under them before it is hurt. In shutting up the 
hive, the surplus honey-board should be carefully slid on, 
so that any bees which are in the way may be pushed 
before it, instead of being crushed. A beginner will find 
it to his advantage to practice — using an empty hive — the 
directions for opening and shutting hives, and lifting out 
the frames, until confident that he fully understands them. 
If any bees are where they would be imprisoned by clos- 
ing the upper cover, it should be propped up a little, until 
they have flown to the entrance of the hive : (PI. VII., 
Fig. 20.) 

An artificial colony may be made in five minutes from 
the time a hive is opened, if the queen is seen as quickly 
as she often is, by an expert. Fifteen minutes is, on an 
average, ample time to complete the whole work. In less 
than a week, if the weather is pleasant, an Apiarian with 
a hundred old stocks, by devoting to them a few hours 
every day, can, without any assistance, easily finish the 
business of swarming for the whole season. 

But if the formation of artificial swarms is delayed, as it 

always should be (p. ), till near the time* for natural 

swarming, how can the bee-keeper, unless constantly on 
hand, escape the risk of losing some of his best swarms ? 
If he prefers to dispense entirely with natural swarming, 
he may deprive his fertile queens of their wings : (see 

* It will be easy — with movable-comb hives — to determine, by an occasional 
inspection, when the 6eason for natural swarming is approaching. 



174: THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 

chapter on Loss of the Queen.) As an old queen leaves 
the hive only with a new swarm, the loss of her wings* in 
no way interferes with her usefulness, or the attachment 
of the bees. If, in spite of her inability to fly, she is bent 
on emigrating, though she has a " will," she can find " no 
way," but helplessly falls to the ground, instead of gaily 
mounting into the air. If the bees find her, they cluster 
around her, -and may be easily secured by the Apiarian ; 
if she is not found, they return to the parent-stock, to 
await the maturity of the young queens. As soon as the 
piping of the first-hatched queen is heard (p. 121), the 
Apiarian may force his swarm, unless — having fair warning 
of their intentions — he prefers to allow them to swarm in 
the natural way. The number of queens nearly ready to 
hatch which are usually found in such a stock, may be 
profitably used in the swarming season. 

As the queen can not get through an opening 5-32dsf 
of an inch high, which will just pass a loaded worker, if 
the entrance to the hive be contracted to this dimension, 
she will not be able to leave with a swarm : (see PI. III., 
Figs. 11, 12.) 

This method of preventing swarming,J requires great 

* Bees communicate with each, other by their antennce, and Huber has prove- 
that queens deprived of these, drop their eggs without care, and are unfit for pre* 
Biding over a hive. 

t Huber does not give the size necessary for confining a queen ; but he speaks 
of adjusting a fflass tube, so as to pass out a worker, and not a queen. The small- 
est queen I ever saw, could not pass through my blocks. Although the workers 
are at first slightly annoyed by them, they soon become accustomed to them, i 
they do not confuse them, by presenting the entrance in a new place. The ventila- 
tion not depending on this contracted entrance, abundance of air can be given to 
the bees, when the blocks are adjusted to confine the queen. 

X 111 health, for the last two Summers, has prevented me from giving this 
method of swarming such a full trial that I can confidently indorse it, except for 
temporary purposes ; though I have little doubt that it may be made entirely to 
prevent the issue of swarms. If so, it will be of great service to those who fear 
to open a hive to remove the royal cells, or cut off the wings of a queen. If 
as soon as piping is heard, the entrance is contracted for about a week, the bees 
may allow the young queens to engage in mortal combat. In this case, the block* 



I 



ARTIFICIAL SWARMTNG. 175 

curacy of measurement, for a very trifling deviation 
from the dimensions given, will either shut out the loaded 
workers, or let out the queen. It should be used only 
to imprison old queens; for young ones, if confined to 
the hive, cannot be impregnated. These blocks, if firmly 
fastened, will exclude mice from the hive in the Winter. 
When used to prevent all swarming, it will be necessary 
to adjust them a little after sunrise and before sunset, to 
allow the bees to carry out any drones that have died. 

Some bee-keepers, while reading these various processes 
for making artificial swarms, have probably thought that 
it would be much better to double the colonies by trans- 
ferring half the combs and bees of a full stock to an empty 
hive; but for reasons already assigned (p. 156), such a 
course, though apparently more simple, would be injuri- 
ous to the bees. 

Having detailed the methods which can be most advan- 
tageously used for doubling stocks in one season, by arti- 
ficial swarming, it seems proper to discuss the question 
whether it will be best to aim at a rate of increase more 
or loss rapid than this.* 

might be used to prevent the issue of second as well as first swarms. If the simple 
turning over of two blocks will prevent all swarming, and without any ulterior 
evil consequences to the colony, it will meet the wants of a large class of bee- 
keepers. 

The difference between theoretical conjectures and practical results is often so 
great, that nothing in the bee-line, or indeed in any other line, should be considered 
as established, until by being submitted to rigorous demonstration, it has triumph- 
antly passed from the mere regions of the brain, to those of actual fact. A theory 
which may seem so plausible as almost to amount to positive demonstration, when 
put to the working test, may be encumbered by some unforeseen difficulty, which 
speedily convinces even the most sanguine that it has no practical value. Nine 
things out of ten may work to a charm, and yet the tenth may be so connected 
with the other nine, that its failure renders their success of no account. 

* As soon as persons find that colonies can be multiplied at will, they are very 
apt to so overdo the matter, as to risk losing their bees. Notwithstanding repeated 
cautions to "make baste slowly," some have multiplied so rapidly, as to ruin their 
stocks, and bring great discredit on my hive, and system of management. Others 
will probably do the same thing; for it would seem that nothing but a sad expert- 



176 THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 

The Apiarian who aims at obtaining much surplus 
honey in any season, cannot, usually, at the furthest, more 
than double his stocks ; nor even that, unless all are strong, 
and the season is favorable. If, in any season that is not 
favorable, he attempts a more rapid increase, he must not 
only expect no surplus honey, but must even purchase 
food for his bees, to keep them from starving. The time, 
care, skill, and food required in our uncertain climate for 
the rapid increase of colonies, are so great, that not one 
bee-keeper hi a hundred* can make it profitable ; while 
most who attempt it, will be almost sure, at the close of 
the season, to find themselves in possession of stocks 
which have been managed to death. 

To make this matter plain, let us suppose a colony to 
swarm. Nearly forty pounds of honey will be ordinarily 
used by the new swarm in filling their hive with comb. 
If the season is favorable, and the swarm large and early, 
the bees may gather enough to build and store this comb, 
and a surplus besides. If the parent-stock does not 
swarm again, it will rapidly replenish its numbers, and 
having no new comb to build in the main hive, will be 
able besides to store up a generous allowance in the uj)per 
boxes. If, however, the season should be unfavorable, 
neither the first swarm nor the parent-stock can ordinarily 
gather more than enough for their own use ; and if the 
honey-harvest is very deficient, both may require feeding. 
The bee-keeper's profits in such an unfortunate season, 
will be the increase of his stocks. 

If the parent-stock is weak in the Spring, the early 

ence of its folly, in bee-keeping, as well as in other pursuits, can ever convince 
men of the danger of "making haste to be rich."" If, in spite of all that can be 
said, the inexperienced will persist in the rapid multiplication of stocks, it is hoped 
that they will at least have candor enough to attribute their losses to their own 
folly. 

* Many a person who reads this will probably imagine that he is the one in a 
bondred. 



ARTIFICIAL SWARMING. 177 

honey-harvest will pass away, and the bees be able to ob- 
tain very little from it. During all this time of meagre 
accumulations, the orchards may present 

" One boundless blush, one white empurpled shower 
Of mingled blossoms ;" 

and tens of thousands of bees from stronger stocks may 
be engaged all day in sipping the fragrant sweets, so that 
every gale which u fans its odoriferous wings " about 
their dwellings, dispenses 

w Native perfumes, and whispers whence they stole 
Those balmy spoils."* 

By the time the feeble stock is prepared — if at all — to 
swarm, the honey-harvest is almost over, and the new 
colony, instead of gathering enough for its own use, may 
starve, unless fed. Bee-keeping, with colonies which are 
feeble in the Spring, except in extraordinary seasons and 
locations, is emphatically nothing but " folly and vexation 
of spirit." 

I have shown how a handsome profit may, in a favorable 
season, be realized from a strong stock, which has swarmed 
early, and but once. If the parent-stock throws a second 
swarm, unless it issues early, and the honey-season is good, 
it will seldom prove of any value, if managed on the ordi- 
nary plan. It usually perishes in the Winter, unless pre- 
viously destroyed, and the parent-stock will not only 
gather no surplus honey — unless it was secured before the 
first swarm issued — but will often perish also. Thus the 
novice who was so delighted with the rapid increase of 
his colonies, begins the next season with no more than he 
had the previous year, and with the entire loss of all the 
time bestowed upon his bees. 

* The scent of the hives, during the height of the gathering season, usually 
indicates from what sources the bees have gathered their supplies. 



178 THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 

With the movable-comb hives, the death of the bees 
may be prevented, and all the feeble colonies made strong 
and powerful ; but only by abandoning the idea of obtain- 
ing a single pound of surplus honey. From the parent- 
stock, and first swarm, combs containing maturing brood 
must be taken to strengthen the weak swarms, and instead 
of being able to store their combs with honey, they will 
be constantly tasked in replacing those taken away, so 
that when the honey-harvest closes, they must be fed to 
save them from starving. 

Any one intelligent enough to keep bees, can, from 
these remarks, understand exactly why colonies cannot be 
rapidly multiplied, in ordinary seasons, and yet be made to 
yield large supplies of surplus honey. Even the doubling 
of stocks will often be too rapid an increase for the 
greatest yield of spare honey. 

I would strongly dissuade any but the most experienced 
Apiarians, from attempting, at the furthest, to do more 
than treble their stocks in one year. Another book would 
be needed, to furnish directions for rapid multiplication, 
sufficiently full and explicit for the inexperienced; and 
even then, most who should undertake it, would be 
sure, at first, to fail. With ten strong stocks of bees, in 
movable-comb hives, in one propitious season, I could so 
increase them, in a favorable location, as to have, on the 
approach of Winter, one hundred good colonies ; but I 
should expect to purchase hundreds of pounds of honey, 
devoting nearly all my time to their management, and 
bringing to the work the experience of many years, and 
the judgment acquired by numerous lamentable failures.* 



* In one season, being called from home after my colonies had been greatly mul- 
tiplied, the honey-harvest was suddenly cut short by a drought, and I found, on 
my return, that most of my stocks were ruined. The bees, not having been 
fed, had jone into the groceries, and perished by hundreds of thousands. 




ARTIFICIAL SWARMING. 179 

A certain rather than a rapid multiplication of stocks, 
is most needed. A single colony, doubling every year, 
would in ten years increase to 1,024 stocks, and in twenty 
years to over a million ! At this rate, our whole co untry 
might, in a few years, be stocked with bees ; an increase 
of one-third, annually, would soon give us enough. This 
latter rate of increase should be encouraged, even if, in the 
Fall, the stocks are reduced (see Union of Stocks), to the 
Spring number ; as, in the long run, it will both keep the 
colonies in the most prosperous condition, and secure the 
largest yield of honey. 

I have never myself hesitated to sacrifice several colo- 
nies, in order to ascertain a single fact ; and it would 
require a large volume, to detail my various experiments 
on the single subject of artificial swarming. The practical 
bee-keeper, however, should never lose sight of the im- 
portant distinction between an Apiary managed princi- 
pally for purposes of observation and discovery, and one 
conducted exclusively with reference to pecuniary profit.* 
Any bee-keeper can easily experiment with my hives ; 
but he should do it, at first, only on a small scale, and if 
pecuniary profit is his object, should follow my directions, 
until he is sure that he has discovered others which are 
better. These cautions are given to prevent serious losses 
in using hives which, by facilitating all manner of experi- 
ments, may tempt the inexperienced into rash and un- 
profitable courses. Beginners, especially, should follow my 
directions as closely as possible ; for, although they may 
doubtless be modified and improved, it can only be done 
by those experienced in managing bees. 

Let me not be understood as wishing to intimate that 
perfection has been so nearly attained, that no more 

* Prof. Siebold says, that Berlepsch told him, that some of his hives " had been 
very much prejudiced by the various scientific experiments." 



180 THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 

important discoveries remain to be made. On the con- 
trary, I should be glad if those who have time and means 
would experiment on a large scale with the movable-comb 
hives; and I hope that every intelligent bee-keeper who 
uses them, will experiment at least on a small scale. In 
this way, we may hope that those points in the natural 
history of the bee still involved in doubt, will, ere long, 
be satisfactorily explained. 

The practical bee-keeper should remember that the less 
he disturbs the stocks on lohich he relies for surplus honey , 
the better. Their hives ought not to be needlessly opened, 
and the bees should never be so much interfered with, as 
to feel that they hold their possessions by an uncertain 
tenure ; as such an impression will often impair their zeal 
for accumulation.* The object of giving the control over 
every comb in the hive, is not to enable the bee-keeper to 
be incessantly taking them in and out, and subjecting the 
bees to all sorts of annoyances. Unless he is conducting 
a course of experiments, such interference will be almost 
as silly as the conduct of children who dig up the seeds 
they have planted, to see how much they have grown. 

Having described how forced swarms are made, both 
in common and movable-comb hives, when the Apiarian 
wishes in one season to double his colonies, I shall now 
show how he can secure the largest yield of honey, by 
forming only one new colony from two old ones. 

When it is time to form artificial colonies, drum a 
strong stock — which call A— so as to secure all its bees, 
and put the forced swarm on the old stand. If any bees 
are abroad when this is done, they will join this new 
colony. Remove to a new stand in the Apiary a second 
strong stock— whiph call B — and put A in its place. 

* These remarks apply more particularly to stocks engaged in storing honey in. 
receptacles not in the main hive. The experience of "Dzierzon and myself, shows 
that opening the hivs, ordinarily interrupts their labors for only a few minutes. 



ARTIFICIAL SWARMING. 181 

Thousands of the bees that belong to I>, as they return 
from the fields,* will enter A, which thus secures enough 
to develop the brood, rear a new queen, and gather, if the 
season is favorable, large surplus stores. 

If JB had been first forced, and then removed, it would 
(p. 156) have been seriously injured ; but as it loses fewer 
bees than if it had swarmed, and retains its queen, it 
will soon become almost as powerful as before it was re- 
moved.! 

This method of forming colonies may be practiced, on 
any pleasant day, from sunrise until late in the afternoon ; 
for if no bees are abroad to recruit the drummed hive, 
it may be shut up, until it can be put upon the stand of 
any strong stock w^hich has already begun to fly with 
vigor. Of all the methods which I have devised ft>r prac- 
ticing artificial swarming,J with almost any kind of 
hive, this appears to be one of the simplest, safest, and 

* It is quite amusing to observe the actions of these bees, when they return to 
their old stand, if the strange hive is like their own in size and outward appear- 
ance, they go in as though all was right, but soon rush out in violent agitation, 
imagining that by some unaccountable mistake, they have entered the wrong 
place. Taking wing to correct their blunder, they find, to their increasing surprise 
that they had directed their flight to the proper spot ; again they enter, and again 
they tumble out, in bewildered crowds, until at length if they find a queen, or the 
means of raising one, they make up their minds that if the strange hive is not 
home, it looks like it, stands where it ought to be, and is, at all events, the only 
home they are likely to get. No doub* they often feel that a very hard bargain 
has been imposed upon them, but they are generally wise enough to make the best 
of it. They will be altogether too much disconcerted to quarrel with any bees 
that were left in the hive when it was forced, who on their part give them a wel- 
come reception. 

t Might not a forced swarm be made to adhere to a new location, by thoroughly 
shaking them in an empty box — see note on p. 163 — and then setting them on their 
new stand, and permitting them to fly ? The queen might be confined, for safety, 
in a queen-cage. 

X The Apiarian, by treating a natural swarm as he has been directed to treat a 
forced one, can secure an increase of one colony from two ; and of all the methods 
of conducting natural swarming, in regions where rapid increase is not profitable, 
this is the best, provided the colonies do not stand too close together, and the 
hives used in the process are alike in shape and color. 



182 THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 

best. It not only secures a reasonable increase of colonies, 
but maintains them all in high vigor ; and in ordinary 
seasons will yield, in good locations, more surplus honey, 
than if all increase of colonies was discouraged. If every 
bee-keeper would adopt this plan, our country might 
soon be like the ancient Palestine, " a land flowing with 
milk and honey." 

In all the modes of artificial increase thus far given, the 
parent or mother-stock — as I shall call it in this connection 
— after parting with the forced swarm, was either supplied 
with a sealed royal cell, or left to raise a new queen from 
worker-brood. J5y the use of movable-comb hives i it may 
be at once supplied with a fertile young queen. Before 
showing how this is done, its extraordinary advantages 
will be described. 

It sometimes happens that the mother-stock, when de- 
prived of its queen, perishes, either because it takes no 
steps to supply her loss, or because it fails in the attempt. 
If it raises several queens, it may become reduced by 
after-swarming ; and, at all events, its young queen must 
run the usual risks in meeting the drones. When all goes 
right, it will usually be from two to three weeks before 
any eggs are laid in the mother-stock; and when the 
brood left by the old queen has all matured, the number 
of the bees will so rapidly decrease, before any of the 
brood of the young queen hatches, that she will not have 
a fair chance, seasonably to replenish the hive. 

Again ; while the system that gives no hatched queen 
to the mother-stock, exposes it to be robbed if forage is 
scarce, the presence of a fertile mother emboldens it to a 
much more determined resistance. 

If the mother-stock has not been supplied with a fertile 
queen, it cannot, for a long time, part with another colony, 
without being seriously weakened. Second swarming — 



as is well 



ARTIFICIAL BW ARMING. 183 



is well known — often very much injures the parent- 
stock, although its queens are rapidly maturing ; but the 
forced mother-stock may have to start theirs almost from 

§e egg. By giving it a fertile queen, and retaining 
ough adhering bees to develop the brood, a moderate 
r arm may be safely taken away in ten or twelve days, 
and the mother-stock left in a far better condition than if 
it had parted with two natural swarms. In favorable 
seasons and localities, this process may be repeated four 
or five times, at intervals of ten days, and if no combs are 
removed, the mother-stock will still be well supplied with 
brood and mature bees. Indeed, the judicious removal 
of bees, at proper* intervals, often leaves it, at the close 
of the Summer, better supplied than non-swarming stocks 
with maturing brood ; the latter having — in the expressive 
language of an old writer — " waxed over fat."f I have 
had stocks which, after parting with four swarms in the 
way above described, have stored their hives with buck- 
wheat honey, besides yielding a surplus in boxes. 

This method of artificial increase, which resembles 

* If a strong stock of bees, in a hive of moderate size, is examined, at the height 
. of the honey-harvest, nearly all the cells will often be found full of brood, honey, 
or bee-bread. The great laying of the queen is over — not as some imagine, be- 
cause her fertility has decreased, but simply for want of room for more brood. A 
queen in such a colony, or in a hive having few bees, often appears almost as 
slender as one still unfertile ; but if she has plenty of bees and empty comb given 
to her, her proportions will soon become very much enlarged. (P. 47.) 

t Columella had noticed that, in very productive seasons, strong stocks, if left 
to themselves, fill up their brood-combs with honey, instead of rearing young bees. 
He advises the unskillful, instead of being pleased with this apparent gain, to shut 
up their hives every third day, and thus compel the bees to attend to breeding! 
This gives the queen a chance to deposit eggs in the cells from which the young 
bees hatch, before they are filled with honey; and no better plan can be devised 
for the common hives. 

In the movable-comb hives, a few of the combs nearest the ends may be taken 
out, and as many empty frames put between every two of the central combs ; 
these will at once be supplied with combs, in which the queen will deposit eggs. 
It would seem that, while the instincts of the bees teach them to rear all- the eggs 
deposited in cells, their avaricious propensities often — as in human beings — get the 



184: THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 

natural swarming, in not disturbing the combs of the 
mother-stock, is not only superior to it, in leaving a fertile 
queen, but obviates almost entirely all risk of after- 
swarming ; for the old queen, when given to the forced 
swarm, very seldom attempts to lead forth a new colony 
(p. 128); and the young one, which is given to the 
mother-stock, is equally content — except in very warm 
climates — to stay where she is put. Even if the old queen 
is allowed to remain in the mother-stock, she will seldom 
leave, if sufficient room is given for storing surplus honey ; 
and it makes no difference — as far as liability of swarming 
is concerned — where the young one is put.* 

The bee-keeper can double his stocks in one season, even 
better in this way, than by the method described on page 
162; and in favorable seasons and locations, this rate of 
increase will yield a large surplus of honey. 

For bee-keepers who may desire a more rapid increase 
of colonies, I shall give the methods, which — after years 
of experimenting — I have found to be the best ; referring 
them to the cautions already given, lest, at the end of the 
season, they find that' their fancied. gains consist only of - 
large investments in dearly bought experience. If they 
are cautious and skillful, in good seasons and locations, 
they may safely increase their colonies three-fold, and 
may, possibly, by liberal feeding, increase them five or six- 
fold, or even more. 

The plan of artificial swarming, described on page 180, 
when combined with the giving of a fertile young queen 

better of them, so that they give their queen no chance to lay, and thus incur the 
risk of perishing, in order to become over-rich. 

* I have frequently noticed that after-swarms are much less inclined than first 
swarms to build drone-comb — their young queens seldom laying many drone-egga 
the first season. If we can cause the new colonies to fill their hives almost 
entirely with worker-combs, merely by supplying them with young queens, bee- 
keeping will take another important step in advance. 



! 



ARTIFICIAL SWARMING. 185 

to the mother-stock, instead of stopping short with an 
increase of one from two, may be expanded to any rate 
of increase that can possibly be secured ; while it has this 
admirable peculiarity, that each step in advance is entirely 
independent of any that are subsequently to be made ; 
and the process may be stopped at any time when forage 
fails, or the bee-keeper chooses — from any cause — to carry 
it no further. 

If it is used for doubling the stocks, proceed as follows : 
Let a fertile young queen be given to A (p. 180) as soon 
as it is forced, and in ten days force a swarm from B, 
which I shall call D. Put D on the stand of B, and 
ifter removing A to a new place, set B where A stood, 
giving to B a fertile young queen. If another colony, 
E, is to be formed, make it in the same way, by forcing 
A, and transposing with B ; and so continue, by the 
transposition of.^L and B — forcing the new colony 
alternately from each — to make successively, at intervals 
of about ten days, F, G, IT, &c. ; A and B being sup- 
plied with a fertile queen as often as they are forced. 

To make this process more intelligible, let A and B 
represent the first positions, in the Apiary, of the original 
stocks : 

Original stocks, A, B. 

Position after 1st forcing, (7, A, B. 

2d " (7, J?, D, A. 
3d " C,A,D,E,B. 
4th " (7, J?, Z>, E, F, A. 

5th " c,ad,e;f,g,b. 

6th " C, j5, 2>, E, F, G, H, A, 

By looking at this table,* it will be seen that the new 

* The table is not intended to recommend setting hives in rows, close together. 
A and B may be anywhere in the Apiary, and C, 2>, E, dbc, as far apart as is at all 
desirable. (See Chap, on Loss of Queen.) 



186 



THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 



colonies, (7, J), E, &c., always remain undisturbed on the 
stands where they are first put. 

Dzierzon has noticed the great number of bees which 
may, at intervals, be removed from a stock-hive, if it only 
retains a fertile queen, and sufficient adhering bees; and 
says that he has known as many bees to be lost, in a single 
day, from a strong stock, by high winds* or sudden storms, 
as would suffice to make a respectable swarm. 

This able Apiarian, who unites to the sagacity of Huber, 
an immense amount of practical experience in managing 
bees, has for years formed his artificial colonies chiefly 
by removing the forced swarms to a distant Apiary. 
Though this plan has some decided merits, and might suit 
two persons— sufficiently far apart— who could agree to 
manage their bees as a joint concern, the expense of 
transporting the bees makes it objectionable to most bee- 
keepers. From the beginning, my plans for artificial in- 
crease were mainly with reference to a single Apiary ; and 
it would seem, from the recent discussion in the Annual 
Apiarian Convention (p. 20), that the German bee-keepers 
are fast adopting the same method. 

By making holes on the inside of the bottom-board of 
my hivesf— the glass ones excepted— artificial swarming 
may be practiced in a way approaching still nearer to 
natural swarming than any yet described. About a week 
or ten days before the artificial swarm is to be made, 
put a» empty hive (7, on the top of a strong stock A— 
making the entrance of C to face in the opposite way 

* If forage is very abundant, bees are almost crazy to get it, however windy the 
weather, and some Apiarians, on such days, confine them to their hives. 

+ These holes are similar to those in the spare honey-board (PI. VIII., Fig. 21) 
ant: are closed in the same way, when not in use. They permit the bees to com- 
municate, Where the hives are piled one on the top of the other ; and the upper 
hive may be used as a place for the storage of surplus honey in small boxes, op 
(PI. X., Fig. 23), in large or small frames. 






ARTIFICIAL SWARMING 187 

from that of A — and uncover the holes in the bottom- 
board of C, so that the bees may pass from A to C. A 
number of the young bees, as they go out to work, will 
use the upper entrance, so that when a colony is driven 
from ^4, and the mother-stock is put in place of C\ it will 
have the requisite number of adhering bees : the forced 
swarm being put into (7, and taking the stand of A, will 
secure, as it ought, the most of the" mature bees. In a 
few days, the upper hive may be set down close to the 
other, and gradually removed to any convenient distance, 
and its entrance made to face in any direction. The same 
process may be repeated, at intervals, with the mother- 
stock, until as many new colonies are formed as may be 
desired.* If the Apiarian does not aim at a very rapid 
increase, he can take from the mother-stock, in forcing it, 
two or three of its combs which are best filled with 
sealed brood, so that the artificial swarm will have recruits 
before its new brood matures. 

If the new colony is forced by removing the frames 
(p. 165), the bees may be shaken on a sheet directly in 
front of A, and allowed to enter it again; the combs 
being all transferred to C, unless the bee-keeper wishes 
to return a few to the parent-stock. 

With a fertile queen, a new colony may be formed by 
simply reversing the positions of A and (7, when the bees 
are in full flight ; and after the lapse of a few days, if 
is weaker than A, the position of the colonies may be 
again reversed : or A and (7 may be reversed, end for 
end, without lifting one from the other ; or the comb 
containing the queen may be left in A, and the others 

* I find, by referring to my Journal, that I devised this method in the Summer 
of 1854, when using frames in hives which, like Dzierzon's, opened at both ends. 
I soon ascertained that such hives— even with my frames — did not give suitable 
facilities for managing bees. 



188 THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE, 

transferred to C, when the bees are in full flight. OtheT 
methods still will suggest themselves to the expert. 

To those who have learned to open the hives ant* 
remove the combs, and who use but one Apiary, this waj 
of making artificial swarms — which I call the piling mode 
— will probably prove to be the best. It does not confuse 
the bees, by presenting to them a new entrance, or a hive 
having a strange smell, and retains in the mother-stock 
adult bees enough to gather water, and attend to all neces- 
sary out-door work. In the Apiarian Convention of 1857, 
which was largely attended, and where the question of 
artificial swarming with one Apiary, was fully discussed, 
Dzierzon recommended a method as much like this as the 
plan of his hives would permit. 

I shall now show how, by means of movable-comb 
hives, fertile young queens may always be kept on hand, 
to supply the forced mother-stocks : About three weeks 
before A (p. 180) is to be forced, take from it, as late in 
the afternoon as there is light enough to do it, a comb 
containing worker-eggs, and bees just gnawing out of 
their cells, and put it, with the mature bees that are on it, 
into an empty hive. If there are not bees enough ad- 
hering to it to prevent the brood from being chilled 
during the night, more must be shaken into the hive 
from another comb. If the transfer is made so late in the 
day that the bees are not disposed to leave the hive, 
enough will <have hatched, by morning, to supply the 
place of those which may return to the parent-stock. A 
comb from which about one-quarter of the brood has 
hatched, will almost always have eggs in the empty cells, 
and if all things are favorable, the bees, in a few hours, 
will usually begin to raise a queen.* 

* I have known about a tea-cup full of bees, confined in a dark place, to begin, 
within an hour, enlarging cells foi raisi ig a queen. 






ARTIFICIAL SWAllMINv^. 189 



If the comb used in forcing such a colony— which I 
shall call a nucleus — was removed at a time of day when 
the bees upon it would be likely to return to the parent- 
stock, they should be confined to the hive, until it is too 
late for them to leave ; and if the number of bees, just 
emerging from their cells, is not large, the entrance to the 
hive should be closed, until about an hour before sunset 
of the next day but one (see p. 161). The hive contain- 
ing this small colony, should be properly ventilated, and 
shaded — if thin- — from the intense heat of the sun ; it 
should always be well supplied with honey and water.* 
Suitable precautions should also be taken to guard against 
the loss of its young queen, when she leaves the hive to 
meet the drones. (See Chap, on Loss of Queen.) 

The best way of forming a nucleus, with movable-comb 
hives, will be by setting an empty hive over a full stock, 
in the way already described (p. 186) : when enough bees 
begin to make use of the upper entrance, a brood comb, 
with adhering bees, may be transferred to it, and the con- 
nection between the two hives closed. If the bees are 
reluctant to enter the upper hive, they may be encouraged 
to do so by nlacing honey there, in a feeder — keeping the 
outside entrance closed against robbers — and they may 
afterwards be allowed to pass out through the upper hive. 
In a few days this nucleus may be set down, and gradually 
removed, so that another hive may be put on the mother- 
stock. 

If all things are favorable, this nucleus, by the time A 
is forced, will have a fertile queen, which may be given to 
A, when the bees that return from the fields show that 
they realize (page 158), their queenless condition. The 

* Whenever the position of a colony is so changed as to interrupt for a few 
days the flight of the bees, it will be advisable to supply them with water in their 
hive, as the want of it is often fatal to the brood. 



190 THE HIVE AJSlD HONEY-BEE. 

comb belonging to the nucleus, with all the btes that are 
on it, may then be given to the artificial colony, C. Or, 
if the bee-keeper prefer, he may give to A its own queen, 
and give the young one — with the precautions subse- 
quently described — to C. 

If the stocks are to be doubled, a second nucleus must 
be formed, by taking, about ten days later, a brood-comb 
from _Z?, and giving the second queen to the second artifi- 
cial colony, D* 

If the colonies are to be multiplied more rapidly still, 
then from the first nucleus only its queen must be taken, 
after she has begun to lay, and her colony will at once 
begin to raise another. If she is removed before she has 
laid any eggs, the comb of the nucleus — after all the bees 
are shaken from it — must be returned to A or JB, and re- 
placed with another that is well supplied with eggs: and 
if, at any time, the number of bees in the nucleus is too 
small, it may be reinforced by exchanging its comb for 
one that is as full of hatching brood as when it was first 
formed (p. 188). The same process must be adopted 
with the second nucleus, and thus — at regular intervals — 
enough queens may be obtained from the two, to multiply 
the colonies to any desired extent. 

To make this matter perfectly plain, let us suppose that 
C is to be forced on the 1st of June, and D, JE, I] &c, 
at intervals of ten days.f Then, as before, (7, A, and JB 
(p. 185), represent the positions of the colonies on the 1st 
of June, and the other columns, their places on the 10th, 
20th, &c. Now, let I and II represent the nuclei — I use 

* Those who rely entirely on natural swarming, may often secure fertile queens, 
by catching the supernumerary young queens of after-swarms (p. 122), and hiving 
them, with a few bees, in any small box containing a piece of worker-comb. 

t Of course, no one will imagine, that operations which depend so much op 
season, climate, and weather, can always be conducted with the mathematical 
accuracy with which they are set forth in such an illustration. 



ARTIFICIAL SWAKMING. 191 

this name when speaking of more than one nucleus — and 
jn, II 1 represent them when each has a queen ; I 2 , II 2 , 
when each has raised its second queen ; I 3 , II 3 , when each 
has its third, and so on, it being always understood that 
7, II, without the small numbers above them, indicate that 
the nuclei are at that time rearing queens. The first 
nucleus will be formed May 10th, and the second May 20th. 

May 10th, I, June 20th, I 2 , II, 

« 20th, I, II, " 30th, I, II 2 , 

June 1st, I\ II, July 10th, I 3 , II, 

" 10th, I, II 1 , « 20th, I, II 3 , &c., &c. 

As it may often be desirable to remove the queen of a 
nucleus, before she has begun to lay eggs, if her colony is 
supplied with a sealed royal cell from another nucleus, no 
time will be lost, and much trouble saved. 

The following, from the pen of Rev. Mr. Kleine, one 
of the ablest German Apiarians, will be interesting in this 
connection : — " Dzierzon recently intimated that, as Huber, 
by introducing some royal jelly into cells containing 
worker-brood, obtained queens, it may be possible to in- 
duce bees to construct royal cells where the Apiarian pre- 
fers to have them, by inserting a small portion of ro^al 
jelly in cells containing worker-larvae ! If left to them- 
selves, the bees often so crowd their royal cells together " 
— see PI. XV. — " that it is difficult to remove one, without 
fatally injuring the others ; as, when such a cell is cut into, 
the destruction and removal of the larva usually follows. 
To prevent such losses, I usually proceed as follows : 
When I have selected a comb with unsealed brood, for 
rearing queens, I shake or brush off the bees, and trim off, 
if necessary, the empty cells at its margin. I then take 
an unsealed royal cell — which usually contains an excess 
of royal jelly — and remove from it a portion of the jelly, 



192 THE HIVE AND HONEY-BKE. 

on the point of a knife or pen, and by placing it on the 
inner margin of any worker-cells, feel confident that the 
larvae in them will be reared as queens ; and as these royal 
cells are separate, and on the margin of the comb, they 
can be easily and safely removed. This is another import- 
ant advance in practical bee-culture, for which we are in- 
debted to the sagacity of Dzierzon." — JBienenzeitung, 
1858, p. 199. Translated by Mr. Wagner. 

If the spare queen-cells are cut out (p. 166) from I, be- 
fore the first queen matures, other nuclei may be formed 
by similar processes; indeed, with movable combs, any 
number of queens may be raised, and kept where, when 
wanted, they can be readily secured.* 

Both the original nuclei, Zand II, and those made from 
their sealed queens, may be formed by bringing from 
another Apiary, in a small box, the few adhering bees 
which are wanted (p. 162) ; and as many may be returned 
in it, to be used for a similar purpose. The expert will 
also be able to catch up adhering bees, by slightly movingf 
the parent-stocks (p. 161), and in various other ways, 
which will readily suggest themselves. 

* Dzierzon estimates a fertile queen to be worth, in the swarming season, one- 
half the price of a new swarm. 

+ If the adhering bees are thus obtained, and there is not a cluster of bees on 
the brood-comb, they may be so dissatisfied with its deserted appearance, as to re- 
fuse to stay. If they intend to submit to this system of forced colonization, they 
will, however much agitated at first, soon join the cluster of bees on the comb ; 
otherwise, they will quickly abandon the hive, carrying off with them all that 
were put in with the comb. 

While it is admitted that bees can raise a queen from any worker-egg or young 
(arva, is it certain that workers of any age are able or disposed to do it ? 

Huber speaks of two kinds of workers : " One of these is, in general, destined for 
the elaboration of wax, and its size is considerably enlarged when full of honey ; 
the other immediately imparts what it has collected, to its companions ; its abdomen 
undergoes no sensible change, or it retains only the honey necessary for its own sub- 
sistence. The particular function of the bees of this kind is to take care of the 
young, for they are not charged with provisioning the hive. In opposition to the 
wax-workers, we shall call them small bees, or nwses. 

** Although the external difference be inconsiderable, this is not an Imaginary 



Fig. 48. 



Plate XV 




Fitf. 5a 




ARTIFICIAL SWARMING. 193 

One queen can be made to supply several hives with 
brood, while they are constantly engaged in raising spare 
queens. Deprive two colonies, 1 and 2, at intervals of a 
week, each of its queen, using these queens for artificial 
swarms. As soon as the royal cells in 1 are old enough 
for use, remove them, and give 1 a queen from another 
hive, 3. When the royal cells in 2 are removed, this 
queen may be taken from 1 — where she will have laid 
abundantly — and given to 2. By this time, the queen- 
cells in 3 being sealed over, may be removed, and the 
queen restored to her own stock. She has thus made one 
circuit, and supplied 1 and 2 with eggs ; and after replen- 
ishing her own hive, she may be sent again on her per- 
ambulating mission. By this device, I can obtain, from a 
few stocks, a large number of queens. 

A few days after a nucleus is formed, it should be ex- 
amined, and if royal .cells are not begun, or there are no 
larvae in them, the bees must be shaken from the comb, 
which should then be exchanged for another. 

Bees sometimes commence queen-cells, which, in a few 

distinction. Anatomical observations prove that the stomach is not the same : ex- 
periments have ascertained that one of the species cannot fulfill all the functions 
6hared among the workers of a hive. We painted those of each class with different 
colors, in order to study their proceedings; and these were not interchanged. In 
another experiment, after supplying a hive, deprived of a queen, with brood and 
pollen, we saw the small bees quickly occupied in nutrition of the larvse, while 
those of the wax-working class neglected them. Small bees also produce wax, but 
In a very inferior quantity to what is elaborated by the real wax workers." 

Now, as Huber's statements have proved to be uncommonly reliable, perhaps 
«nen bees refuse to cluster on the brood-comb, to rear a new queen, it is because 
some of the conditions necessary for success are wanting. Either there may not 
be enough wax-workers to enlarge the cells, or nurses to take charge of the larvae. 

If Huber had possessed the same facilities for observation with Dr. Donh«ff (see 
page 194*. he would, probably, have come to the same conclusions. 

If any imagine that the careful experiments required to establish facts upon the 
solil basis of demonstration, are easily made, let them attempt to prove or disprove 
the truth of either of +hese conjectures ; and they will probably find the task 
more difficult than to cover whole reams of paper with careless assertions. 

9 



194 THE HIVE AND HONKY-BEE. 

days, are found to be untenanted. At the second attempt 
they usually start a larger number, and seldom fail of suc- 
cess. Does practice make them more perfect ? or were 
some of the necessary conditions wanting at first ? 

The following able communication, from the pen of Dr. 
Donhoff, may throw some light on this subject : — " Dzier- 
zon states it as a fact, that worker-bees attend more ex- 
clusively to the domestic concerns of the colony in the 
early period of life ; assuming the discharge of the more 
active out-door duties only during the later periods of 
their existence. The Italian bees furnished me with suit- 
able means to test the correctness of this opinion. 

"On the 18th of April, 1855,1 introduced an Italian 
queen into a colony of common bees; and on the 10th of 
May following, the first Italian workers emerged from the 
cells. On the ensuing day, they emerged in great numbers, 
as the colony had been kept in good condition by regular 
and plentiful feeding. I will arrange my observations 
under the following heads : 

" 1. On the ]0th of May the first Italian workers 
emerged ; and on the 1 7th they made their first appear- 
ance outside of the hive. On the next day. and then 

An extract from Hubert preface will be interesting in this connection. After 
speaking of his blindness, and praising the extraordinary taste for Natural History, 
of his assistant, Burnens, tl who was born with the talents of an observer," he says : 
"Every one of the facts I now publish, we have seen, over and over again, during 
the period of eight years, which we have employed in making our observations on 
bees. It is impossible to form a just idea of the patience and skill with which 
Burnens has carried out the experiments which I am about to describe ; he has 
often watched some of the working bees of our hives, which we had reason to 
think fertile, for the space of twenty-four hours, without distraction * * * * and he 
counted fatigue and pain as nothing, compared with the great desire he felt to 
know the results. If, then, there be any merit in our discoveries, I must share the 
honor with him ; and I have great satisfaction in rendering him this act of public 
justice.'" 

And yet the man who was too noble to appropriate the merits of his servant, has, 
by many, been considered base enough to attempt to impose upon the world, as 
well established facts, things scarcely more probable than the fictions of '* Sinbad 
the Sailor.'" 



ARTIFICIAL SWARMING. 195 

daily till the 29th, they came forth about noon, disporting 
in front of the hive, in the rays of the sun. They, how- 
ever, manifestly, did not issue for the purpose of gathering 
honey or pollen, for during that time none were noticed 
returning with pellets ; none were seen alighting on any 
of the flowers in my garden ; and I found no honey in 
the stomachs of such as I caught and killed for examina- 
tion. The gathering was done exclusively by the old bees 
of the original stock, until the 29th of May, when the 
Italian bees began to labor in that vocation also — being 
then 19 days old. 

u 2. On the feeding troughs placed in my garden, and 
which were constantly crowded with common bees, I saw 
no Italian bees till the 27th of May, seventeen days after 
the first had emerged from the cells. 

"From the 10th of May on, I daily presented to Italian 
bees, in the hive, a stick dipped in honey. The younger 
ones never attempted to lick any of it ; the older occasion- 
ally seemed to sip a little, but immediately left it and 
moved away. The common bees always eagerly licked it 
up, never leaving it till they had filled their honey-bags. 
Not till the 25th of May did I see any Italian bee lick up 
honey eagerly, as the common bees did from the begin- 
ning. 

"These repeated observations force me to conclude that, 
during the first two weeks of the worker-bee's life, the 
impulse for gathering honey and pollen does not exist, or 
at least is not developed ; and that the development of this 
impulse proceeds slowly and gradually. At first the 
young bee will not even touch the honey presented to 
her ; some days later she will simply taste it, and only 
after a further lapse of time will she consume it eagerly. 
Two weeks elapse before she readily eats honey, and 
nearly three weeks pass, before the gathering impulse is 



196 THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 

sufficiently developed to Impel her to fly abroad, and 
aeek for honey and pollen among the flowers. 

" I made, further, the following observations respecting 
the domestic employments of the young Italian bees : 

" 1. On the 20th of May, I took out of the hive all the 
combs it contained, and replaced them after examination. 
On inspecting them half an hour later, I was surprised to 
see that the edges of the combs, which had been cut on 
removal, were covered by Italian bees exclusively. On 
closer examination, I found that they were busily engaged 
in re-attaching the combs to the sides of the hive. When 
I brushed them away, they instantly returned, in eager 
haste, to resume their labors. 

" 2. After making the foregoing observations, I inserted 
in the hive a bar from which a comb had been cut, to as- 
certain whether the rebuilding of comb would be under- 
taken by the Italian bees. I took it out again a few hours 
subsequently, and found it covered almost exclusively by 
Italian workers, though the colony, at that time, still con- 
tained a large majority of common bees. I saw that they 
were sedulously engaged in building comb ; and they 
prosecuted the w^ork unremittingly, whilst I held the bar 
in my hand.* I repeated this experiment several days in 
succession, and satisfied myself that the bees engaged in 
this work were always almost exclusively of the Italian 
race. Many of them had scales of wax visibly protrudin: 
between their abdominal rings. These observations sho 
that, in the early stage of their existence, the impulse for 
comb-building is stronger than later in life. 

" 3. Whenever I examined the colony during the first 
three w r eeks after the Italian bees emerged, I found the 
brood-combs covered principally by bees of that race : 

* I have had a queen which continued to lay eggs in a comb, after it was removed 
from the hive. 



m 




ARTIFICIAL SWARMING. 197 

and it is, hence, probable that the brood* is chiefly 
attended to and nursed by the younger bees. The evi- 
dence, however, is not so conclusive as in the case of comb- 
building, inasmuch as they may have congregated on the 
brood-combs because these are warmer than the others. 

"I may add another interesting observation. The 
faeces in the intestines of the young Italian bees was viscid 
and yellow ; that of the common or old bees was thin and 
limpid, like that of the queen-bee. This is confirmatory 
of the opinion, that, for the production of wax and jelly, 
the bees require pollen; but do not need any for their 
own sustenance." — _B. Z. 1855, p. 163. S. Wagner. 

If the colonies are to be multiplied rapidly, the nuclei 
must never be allowed to become too much reduced in 
numbers, or to be destitute of brood or honey. With 
these precautions, the oftener their queen is taken from 
them, the more intent they usually become in supplying 
her loss. 

There is one trait in the character of bees which is wor- 
thy of profound respect. Such is their indomitable energy 
and perseverance, that under circumstances apparently 
hopeless, they labor to the utmost to retrieve their losses, 
and sustain the sinking State. So long as they have a 
queen, or any prospect of raising one, they struggle vigor- 
ously against impending ruin, and never give up until 
their condition is absolutely desperate. I once knew a 
colony of bees not large enough to cover a piece of comb 
four inches square, to attempt to raise a queen. For 

* I once had a colony which, after it had been queenless for some time, not only 
refused to make royal cells, but even devoured the eggs which were given to them. 
Similar facts have been noticed by other observers. When a colony which refuses 
to rear a queen, has a comb given to it containing maturing bees, these motherless 
innocents will at once proceed to supply their loss. Dr. DdnhofTs observation* 
account for these facts. 



198 THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 

two whole weeks, they adhered to their forlorn hope ; 
until at last, when they had dwindled to less than one 
half of their original number, their new queen emerged, "but 
with wings so imperfect that she could not fly. Crippled 
as she was, they treated her with almost as much respect 
as though she were fertile. In the course of a week 
more, scarce a dozen workers remained in the hive, and a 
few days later, the queen was gone, and only a few dis- 
consolate wretches were left on the comb. 

Shame on the faint-hearted of our race, who, when 
overtaken by calamity, instead of nobly breasting the 
stormy waters of affliction, meanly resign themselves to an 
ignoble fate, and perish, where they ought to have lived 
and triumphed ! and double shame upon those who, living 
in a Christian land, thus " faint in the day of adversity," 
when if they would only believe the word of God, they 
might behold, with the eye of faith, his " bow of promise" 
spanning the still stormy clouds,, and hear his voice of 
love bidding them trust in Him as a " Strong Deliverer !" 

In the previous editions of this work, with other 
methods of artificial swarming, very full directions were 
furnished for increasing colonies, by giving to the nuclei 
a second comb with maturing brood, *as soon as their 
queens began to lay eggs, and then, at proper intervals, a 
third, and a "fourth, until they were strong enough to take 
care of themselves. This mode of increase is laborious, 
and requires skill and judgment which few possess : it is 
also peculiarly liable to cause robbing among the bees, 
requiring the hives to be too frequently opened, to remove 
the combs needed in the various processes. As a number 
of nuclei are to be simultaneously strengthened, the 
Apiarian cannot complete his artificial processes by a 
single operation, and must always be on hand, or incur 
tne risk of ending the season with a number of staiving 



ARTIFICIAL SWARMING. 199 

colonies. For these and other reasons, I much prefer the 
methods which I have devised, for dispensing with so much 

» opening of hives and handling of combs. If, however, 
any of the new colonies are weak enough to need it, they 
may be helped to combs from stronger stocks. 

Whatever method of artificial increase is pursued by 
the Apiarian, he should never reduce the strength of his 
mother -stocks, so as seriously to cripple the reproductive 
power of their queens. This principle should be to him 
ay. "the law of the Medes and Persians, which altereth 
not :" for while a queen, with an abundance of worker- 
comb and bees, may, in a single season, become the parent 
of a number of prosperous families, if her colony, at the 
beginning of the swarming season, is divided into three 
or four parts, not one of them will ordinarily acquire 
stores enough to survive the Winter. 

If the Apiarian is in the vicinity of sugar-houses, con- 
fectioneries, or other tempting places of bee-resort, he will 
find his stocks, both old and new, so depopulated by their 
zeal for ill-gotten gains, as to be in danger of perishing. 
In such situations, all attempts at rapid increase are 
entirely futile. 

Artificial operations of all kinds are most successfid 
when bee for age is abundant ; when it is scarce they are 
quite precarious, even if the colonies are well supplied 
with food. 

When bees are not busy in honey-gathering, they have 
leisure to ascertain the condition of weak stocks, which 
are almost certain to be robbed, if they are incautiously 
opened, When forage is scarce, the hives should be 
opened before sunrise, or after sunset, or when very few 
bees are flying abroad ; and if it is necessary to open them 
at other times, they must be removed out of the reach of 
annoyance from other colonies. The Apiarian who doe* 



200 THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 

not guard against robbing, will seriously impair the value 
of his stocks, and entail upon himself much useless and 
vexatious labor. Beware of demoralizing bees, by tempt- 
ing them to rob each other ! 

In an Apiary where hives very unlike in size, shape, 
and color, are crowded together, artificial operations will 
often be exceedingly hazardous, as the bees will be con- 
tinually liable to enter the wrong hives. If the stocks 
must be kept very close together, even if the hives are all 
of the same color and pattern, it will be best to carry 
to a second Apiary, either the forced swarms, or the 
mother-stocks from which they were made. 

The bee-keeper has already been reminded that caution 
is needed in giving to bees a stranger-queen. Huber thus 
describes the way in which a new queen is usually re- 
ceived by a hive : 

" If another queen is introduced into the hive within 
twelve hours after the removal of the reigning one, they 
surround, seize, and keep her a very long time captive, in 
an impenetrable cluster, and she commonly dies either 
from hunger or want of air. If eighteen hours elapse 
before the substitution of a stranger-queen, she is treated, 
at first, in the same way, but the bees leave her sooner, 
nor is the surrounding cluster so close ; they gradually 
disperse, and the queen is at last liberated ; she moves 
languidly, and sometimes expires in a few minutes. Some, 
however, escape in good health, and afterwards reign in 
the hive. If twenty-four hours elapse before substituting 
the stranger-queen, she will be well received, from the 
moment of her introduction. 

" Reaumur affirms, that, should the original queen be 
removed, and another introduced, this new one will be 
perfectly well received from the beginning * * * He in- 



ARTIFICIAL SWARMING. 201 

duced four or five hundred bees to leave their hive, and 
enter a glass-box, containing a small piece of comb. At 
first, they were in great agitation, but from the moment 
that he presented a new queen the tumult ceased, and the 
stranger was received with all respect. 

" I do not dispute the truth of this experiment, but 
Reaumur's bees were too much removed from their natural 
condition to allow him to judge of their instincts and dis- 
positions. He has himself observed, that their industry 
and activity are affected by reducing their numbers too 
much. To render such an experiment truly conclusive, it 
must be made in a populous hive ; and on removing the 
native queen, the stranger must be immediately substituted 
in her place." 

It would seem, from his use of the word immediately, 
that Huber must have been aware of the fact, that if a 
strange queen is given to a colony, before its agitation is 
calmed down (p. 158), and before royal cells are begun, 
she will usually be well received. If the bees of a colony 
are made to fill themselves with honey, by drumming, 
smoking, or giving them liquid sweets, and often, if they 
are removed to a new stand, they will readily accept of 
any queen offered them, in place of their own. 

Bees, in possession of a fertile queen, are often quite 
reluctant to accept of an unimpregnated one in her stead ; 
indeed, it requires much experience to be able to give a 
strange queen to a colony, and yet be sure of securing for 
her a good reception. In several instances, the workers 
have stung a strange queen to death, while I was holding 
her in my fingers, to be able to remove her if she was 
not kindly welcomed. To prevent accidents, it will be 
well to confine a queen— when given to a strange colony 
— in what the Germans call a " queen-cage," which may 



202 THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 

be made by boring a hole into a block, and covering it 
with wire-gauze, or any perforated cover. The bees will 
cultivate an acquaintance with the imprisoned mother, by 
thrusting their antenna through the openings, and the 
next day she may be safely given to them. Queens bent 
on escaping to the woods, may be confined in the same 
way. A pasteboard box, pierced with holes, answers equally 
well, or even a match-box, properly scalded. 

If the cage is put with its small openings over one of 
the holes on the spare honey-board, or set inside of the 
hive, the bees will be as quiet as though the queen had 
her liberty. Such a cage will be very convenient for any 
temporary confinement of a queen. 

In catching a queen, she should be gently taken, with 
the fingers, from among the bees, and if none are crushed, 
there is no risk of being stung. The queen, although she 
will not sting, even if roughly handled, will sometimes, 
when closely confined, bite the hand of the operator so as 
to cause a little uneasiness — her jaws, which are intended 
for gnawing into the base of the royal cells, being larger 
and stronger than those of a common bee. If she is 
allowed to fly, she may be lost, by attempting to enter a 
strange hive. 

As a fertile queen can lay several thousand eggs a day, 
it is not strange that she should quickly become exhausted, 
if taken from the bees. " Ex nihilo nihil Jit " — from 
nothing, nothing comes — and the arduous duties of 
maternity compel her to be an enormous eater. After an 
absence from the bees of only fifteen minutes, she will 
solicit honey, when returned ; and if kept away for an 
hour or upwards, she must either be fed by the Apiarian, 
or have a few bees, gorged with honey, given to her to 
supply her wants. One which I sent by express, in a 



ARTIFICIAL SWARMING. 203 

queen-cage, with a suite of well-fed workers, arrived in 
safety, at the Apiary of a friend, on the next day. 

Great caution is not only requisite in giving a hive a 
strange queen, but in all attempts to mix bees belonging 
to different colonies. Bees having a fertile queen will 
almost always quarrel with those having an unimpregnated 
one; and this is one reason why a furious contest, in 
which thousands perish, often ensues when new swarms 
attempt to mingle. 

Members of different colonies appear to recognize their 
hive-companions by the sense of smell, and if there should 
be a thousand stocks in the Apiary, any one will readily 
detect a strange bee ; just as each mother in a large flock 
of sheep is able, by the same sense, in the darkest night, 
to distinguish her own lamb from all the others. It would 
seem, therefore, that* colonies might always be safely 
mingled, by sprinkling them with sugar-water, scented 
with peppermint or any other strong odor, which would 
make them all smell alike. 

A few seasons ago, however, I discovered that bees 
often recognize strangers by their actions, even when they 
have the same scent ; for a frightened bee curls himself 
up with a co iced look, which unmistakably proclaims that 
he is conscious of being an intruder. If, therefore, the 
bees of one colony are left on their own stcind, and the 
others are suddenly introduced, the latter, even when 
both colonies have the same smell, are often so frightened 
that they are discovered to be strangers, and are instantly 
killed. If, however, both colonies are removed to a new 
stand, and shaken out together on a sheet, they will 
peaceably mingle, when scented alike.* 

* I find substantially the same thing recommended, in 1778, by Thomas Wild- 
man (page 230 of the 3rd edition of his valuable work on Bees), who says, that 
bees will " unite while in fear and distress, without fighting, as they would be apt 
to do, if strange bees were added to a hive in possession of its honey. 11 



204 



THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 



If, when two colonies are put together, the bees in the 
one on the old stand are not gorged with honey, they will 
often attack the others, which are loaded, and speedily sting 
them to death, in spite of all their attempts to purchase 
immunity, by offering their honey. Mr. Wm. W. Cary, 
of Coleraine, Massachusetts, who has long been an accurate 
observer of the habits of bees, unites colonies very suc- 
cessfully, by alarming those that are on the old stand ; as 
soon as they show, by their notes, that they are subdued, 
he gives them the new comers. The alarm which causes 
them to gorge themselves with honey (p. 27), puts them, 
doubtless, upon their good behavior, long enough to give 
the others a fair chance. 

It has been stated already, that a queen-bee cannot be 
induced to sting, by any kind of treatment, however 
severe. The reason of this strange- unwillingness will be 
obvious, when we consider that the preservation of her 
life is indispensable to the existence of the colony, and 
that, although the loss of her sting would be fatal to her- 
self, it could avail no more for their defense, in case of an 
attack, than the single sword of a Washington or a Wel- 
lington could decide a great battle. While the common 
bees are ready to sally forth and sacrifice their lives on 
the slightest provocation, a queen-bee only buries herself 

Of all the old writers, Wildman appears to have made the nearest approaches to 
the modern methods of taming and handling bees. Twenty-five years before 
Huber's investigations on the origin of wax, this acute observer had noticed the 
scales of wax on the abdomen of the workers; and he was so thoroughly convinced 
that wax was secreted from honey, that he recommended feeding new swarms, 
when the weather is stormy, that they may sooner birild comb for the eggs of the 
queen. 

Mr. "Wagner refers me to "Orerbeck's Glossarium Melliturgium' 1 ' 1 — Bremen, 
1T6">, p. S9 — in which the origin of wax is claimed, more then 20 years before the 
date of that work— say 1745— for a Hanoverian Pastor, named Herman C. Horn- 
Dostel. He gave his discoveries to the world in the so-called "Hamburgh 
Library," vol. 2, p. 45 ; and they are so particularly described as to leave no doub* 
of their correctness. 



ARTIFICIAL SWARMING. 205 

more deeply among the clustering thousands, and will 
never use her sting, except when engaged in mortal com- 
bat with another queen. When two rivals meet, they 
clinch, at once, with every demonstration of the most 
vindictive Hatred. Why, then, are not both often de- 
stroyed ? We can never sufficiently admire the provision 
so simple, and yet so effectual, by which such a calamity 
is prevented. A queen never stings, unless she has such 
an advantage that she can curve her body under that of 
her rival, so as to inflict a deadly wound, without any risk 
to herself — the moment the position of the two combat- 
ants is such that neither has the advantage, but both are 
liable to perish, they not only refuse to sting, but disengage 
themselves, and suspend their conflict for a short time ! 

The following interesting statements were furnished to 
the New -England Farmer (Oct. 1855), by Hon. Simon 
Brown, Lieutenant-Governor of the Commonwealth of 
Massachusetts, in 1855. 

" On the 1 7th of July last, we placed in our dining- 
room window one of Mr: Langstroth's observing bee-hives, 
constructed of glass, so that all the operations of the bees 
could be plainly and conveniently seen. A comb about a 
foot square was placed in it, containing some brood, with 
plenty of workers and drones, but without a queen. The 
hive was then carefully observed by one of the ladies of 
the family, who has given us the following account of their 
doings. 

" 4 The first business the bees attended to, was to com- 
mence cells for a queen, and they prosecuted it with energy 
for two days. At the end of that time, a queen was taken 
from another colony and placed with them, upon which 
they pulled down the cells they had made, in less than 
half the time it had required to construct them, and then 



206 THE IIIVK AND HONEY-BEE. 

began to piece out and repair the comb which needed a 
corner. The queen at once commenced laying, and soon 
rilled the unoccupied cells, when she was again removed, 
and the bees once more began the construction of queen^ 
cells. 

" ' The young bees now began to hatch forth, and in two 
weeks the family increased so fast as to make it necessary 
for them to prepare to emigrate. They had built six queen- 
cells, and in about twelve days the first queen was hatched. 
As soon as she was fairly born, she marched rapidly, and 
in the most energetic manner, over the comb, and visited 
the other cells in which were the embryo queens, seeming 
at times furious to destroy them. The workers, however, 
surrounded her, and prevented such wholesale murder. 
But for two days she was intent upon her fell purpose, and 
kept in almost continuous motion to effect it. . On the 
fourteenth day, the second queen was ready to come out, 
piping and making various noises to attract attention. 

" ' A part of the colony then seemed to conclude that it 
was time to take the first queen and go, but by some mis- 
take she remained in the hive after the swarm had left. 
The second queen came out as soon as possible after the 
others had gone, and then there were now two hatched 
queens in the hive ! they ran about on the comb, which 
was now nearly empty, so that they could be distinctly 
seen. But they had not, apparently, noticed each other, 
while the workers were in a state of great uneasiness and 
commotion, seeming impatient for the destruction of one 
of them. The mode they adopted to accomplish it was 
of the most deliberate and cold-blooded kind. A circle 
of bees kept one queen stationary, while another party 
dragged the other up to her, so that their heads nearly 
touched, and then the bees stood back, leaving a fair field 
for the combatants, in which one was to gain her laurels, 



ARTIFICIAL SWARMING. 20? 

and the other to die ! The battle was fierce ana sanguinary. 
They grappled each other, and, like expert wrestlers, 
strove to inflict the fatal blow by some sudden or adroit 
movement. But for some moments the parties seemed 
equally matched ; no advantage could be gained on either 
side. The bees stood looking calmly on the dreadful 
affray, as though they themselves had been the heroes of 
a hundred wars. But the battle, like all others, had its 
close ; one fell upon the field, and was immediately taken 
by the workers and carried out of the hive. By this time, 
the bees which had swarmed made the discovery that their 
queen was missing, and although they had been hived 
without any trouble, came rushing back, but not in season 
to witness the fatal battle, and the fall of their poor slain 
queen, who should have gone forth with them to seek a 
future home. 5 "* 

The Apiarian has already been reminded of the import- 
ance of securing straight worker-combs' for his stocks. 
To a stock-hive, such combs are like cash capital to a 
business man ; and so long as they are fit for use, they 
should never be destroyed (p. 60).f Those who have 
plenty of good worker-comb, will unquestionably find it 
to their advantage to use it in the place of the artificial 
guides (PI. I., Fig. 2, w).\ Those who use the guides, 

* "We introduced a queen into a hive," says Huber, "after painting her thorax, 
to distinguish her from the reigning queen. A circle of bees formed so closely 
around the stranger, that in scarcely a miuute she lost her liberty. Other workers 
a* the same time collected around the reigning queen, and restrained her motions, 
* * * They retained their prisoners only when they appeared to withdraw from 
each other; and if one, less restrained, seemed desiroas of approaching her rival, 
all the bees forming the clusters gave way, to allow her full liberty of attack ; then, 
if they showed a disposition to fly, they returned to inclose them. 1 ' 

t Mr. S. Wagner has a colony over 21 years old, whose young bees appear to be 
as large as any -others in his Apiary. 

% See Explanation of Plates of Hives, for a description of the various styles of 
movable frame*. 



20 8 TIIE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 

should examine a swarm two or three days after it is 
hived, when, by a little management, any irregularities in 
their combs may be easily corrected Some combs may 
need a little compression, to bring them into their proper 
positions, and others may even require to be cut out, and 
fastened as guides in other frames ; but no pains should 
be spared to see that they are all right, before the work 
has gone so far as to make it laborious to remedy any 
defects. If a colony is small it ought to be confined, by 
a movable partition, to such a space in the hive as it can 
occupy w r ith comb — as well for its encouragement, as to 
economize its animal heat, and guard against irregularities 
in comb-building. Varro, who flourished before the 
Christian Era, says (Liber III., Cap. xviii.), that bees be- 
come dispirited, when placed in hives that are too large. 

The possession of five frames of straight worker-comb, 
may be made to answer an admirable end, if given to a 
new swarm, so as to alternate with its empty frames. 
After the bees have had possession of them two or three 
days, they may be politely informed that these worker- 
cDmbs were only loaned to them as patterns, and their new 
combs may be alternated with empty frames. Five combs 
may thus be used for many successive swarms. 

As the artificial guides increase the expense of the 
frames, and cannot be invariably relied on, the practical 
Apiarian will aim, as far as possible, to dispense with their 
use. I have devised a plan — which will be elsewhere de- 
scribed — for superseding them, and enabling the beginner 
to compel his bees, without any comb, to build in the 
frames with entire regularity. 

It must be obvious to every intelligent bee-keeper, that 
the perfect control of the combs of the hive is the soul of 
a system of practical management, which may be modi- 
fied to suit the vmnts of all who cultivate bees. Even tho 



ARTIFICIAL SWARMING. 201* 

old-fashioned bee-keeper can, with movable combs, destroy 
his faithful laborers quite as speedily as by setting them 
over a sulphur-pit ; thus preserving his honey from dis- 
gusting fumes, while he secures it on frames from which 
it may be conveniently cut, and preserves all empty comb 
for future use (p. 71). 

As many who would like to keep bees are so much 
afraid of being stung, that they object entirely even to 
natural swarming, how, it may be asked, can such persons 
open hives, lift out the combs, shake or brush off the bees, 
and practice other processes which seem like bearding a 
lion in its very den ? The truth is, that some persons are 
so timid, or suffer so dreadfully when stung, that they are 
every way disqualified from having anything to do with 
bees, and ought either to have none upon their premises, 
or to entrust the care of them to others. With the direc- 
tions furnished in this treatise, almost any one, however, 
by using a bee-dress, can learn to superintend bees with 
very little risk. I find, in short, that the risk of being 
stung is really diminished by the use of my hives; although 
it is very difficult for those who have not seen them in use, 
to believe that this can be so. 

The ignorance of most bee-keepers of the almost un- 
limited control which may be peaceably acquired over 
bees, has ever been regarded by the author of this treatise 
as the greatest obstacle to the speedy introduction of 
movable-comb hives. He might easily have invented con- 
trivances which, by adapting themselves to this ignorance, 
would, at first, have proved much more lucrative to him, 
had he thought it just, either to the community or to 
himself, to have taken such a course. Such ignorance has 
led to the invention of costly and complicated hives,* 

* I have before me a small pamphlet, published in London in 1851, describing 
the construction of the "Bar and Frame Hive" of W. A. Munn, Esq. The object 



210 THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 

all the ingenuity and expense lavished upon which, are 
known, by the better informed, to be as unnecessary as a 
costly machine for lifting up bread and butter, and gently 
pushing it into the mouth and down the throat of an 
active and healthy child. 

The Rev. John Thorley, in his " Female Monarchy^ 
published at London, in 1744, appears to have first intro- 
duced the practice of stupefying bees by the narcotic 
fumes of the " puff ball " {Fungus pulverulentus), dried 
till it will hold fire like tinder. The same effect has 
been produced by pushing a rag, saturated with chloro- 
form or ether, into the entrance of the hive, and closing 
all tight, to prevent the escape of the fumes. The bees 
soon drop motionless from their combs, and recover again 
after a short exposure to the air. 

Some of my readers may suppose that such an easy 
mode of stupefying bees would very greatly facilitate the 

of this invention is to elevate frames, one at a time, into a case vMK glass sides, 
so that they may be examined without risk of annoyance from the bees. Great 
ingenuity is exhibited by the inventor of this very costly and very complicated 
hive, who seems to imagine that smoke "must be injurious both to the bees and 
their brood. 11 Even if a little smoke is so injurious, the Apiarian, by sweetened 
water, or by drumming upon a hive, after closing its entrance, can cause the bees 
to fill themselves with honey (p. 27), when all their combs may be safely lifted out. 

A Huber-hive, or one with movable bars, may be much more safely managed 
than any one which proposes to elevate the frames, wit)v_,at permitting them to be 
pushed apart (p. 150). A single hive, the arrangeme> & of which are such as to 
maim and irritate bees, is more to be dreaded in a» dpiary than a thousand of 
proper construction ; as it educates bees to regard * ceir keeper in the light of an 
enemy. 

On p. 15, 1 have spoken of the bar-hive, as at *east one hundred years old. 
From " A Journey into Greece, by George Whaler, Esq.," made in 1675-6, it 
appears that it was, at that time, in common use fSere, and, probably, even then an 
old invention ; he describes how it was used for forming artificial swarms, and re- 
moving spare honey. As the new swarms w~ve made by dividing the combs be- 
tween two hives, and no mention is made «-< giving the queenless one a royal cell 
— those old observers were probably acquainted with the fact that they could rear 
one from the worker-brood. Huber ways:— "Monticelli, a Neapolitan Professor, 
claims that the plan of artificial swa* -o.ing was borrowed from Favignana, and that 
the practice is so ancient that eve the Latin names are preserved by the inhabi- 
tants in their procedure." 



ARTIFICIAL SWARMING. 211 

removal of combs; but, however valuable to -chose 
ignorant of the great law, that a gorged bee never vol- 
unteers an attack, to the better informed, narcotics of all 
kinds are, for general purposes, worse than useless. Liv- 
ing bees may be easily made to get out of the way ; but 
drunken ones, like drunken men, are constantly liable to 
be maimed or killed. 

There is a large class of bee-keepers — not bee-masters 
— who desire a hive which will give them, however 
ignorant or careless, a large yield of honey from their 
bees. They are easily captivated by the shallowest de- 
vices, and spend their money and destroy their bees, to 
fill the purses of unprincipled men. There never will be 
a " royal road "to profitable bee-keeping. Like all other 
branches of rural economy, it demands care and experi- 
ence ; and those who are conscious of a strong disposition 
to procrastinate and neglect, will do well to let bees alone, 
unless they hope, by the study of their systematic industry, 
to reform evil habits which are well nigh incurable. 

While I feel increasingly sanguine that the movable- 
comb hive* will be extensively used by skillful bee-keepers, 
I well know the difficulty of rapidly introducing any sys- 
tem of management which is much in advance of current 
knowledge; even a perfect hive (p. 116) would require 
years to win its way into general use. It is only of late 
years, that the splendid discoveries of Huber — like the 
writings of Bruce on the Sources of the Nile — have 
emerged from the clouds of ridicule and aspersion in 
which they were so long enveloped ; and even now, to 
describe a tithe of the wonders of the bee-hive, however 

* The day on which I contrived the movable-frames, I wrote as follows, in my 
Bee-Journal : — " The use of these frames will, I am persuaded, give a new im- 
pulse to the easy and profitable management of bees ; and will render the making 
of artificial swarms an easy operation. 1 ' 



212 



THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 



thoroughly they have been demonstrated, is, unfortu- 
nately, in the estimation of many of our oldest bee- 
keepers, to deserve the name of a fool, a liar, or a cheat. 



LOSS OF THE QUEEN. 213 

CHAPTER XI. 

LOSS OF THE QUEEN. 

iat the Queen-Bee is often lost, and that her colony 
will be ruined unless such a calamity is seasonably remedied, 
ought to be familiar facts to every bee-keeper. 

Queens sometimes die of disease or old age, when there 
is no brood to supply their loss. Few, however, perish 
under such circumstances ; for either the bees build royal 
cells, aware of their approaching end, or they die so sud- 
denly as to leave young brood behind them. Queens are 
not only much longer lived (p. 58) than the workers, but 
are usually the last to perish in any fatal casualty. As 
many die of old age, if their death did not ordinarily 
occur under favorable circumstances, it would cause, 
yearly, the loss of a very large number of colonies. As 
they seldom die when their strength is not severely taxed 
in breeding, drones are usually on hand to impregnate 
their successors.* 

Young queens are sometimes born with wings so imper- 
fect that they cannot fly (p. 39) ; and they are often so 
injured in their contests with each other, or by the rude 
treatment they receive when driven from the royal cells 
(p. 121), that they cannot leave the hive for impregnation. 

* In preparing my stocks for Winter, I fonnd — on the 21st of October, 1856 — 
two which had sealed queens. As the. drones were not killed, in some of the hiyeB, 
until after the 1st of November, these queens might have been impregnated, if the 
weather had not become very cold. When examined on the 21st day of February, 
these stocks had each a few sealed drones and larvae, while weaker stocks had 
much brood. The following is an extract from Prof. Leidy's description of these 
queens : — " Their ovaries were filled with eggs, from a mere point to such as meas- 
ured four-fifths of a line long, and one-eighth of a line broad. Their speruiathecaa ' 
were filled with mucoid, granular matter, and epithelial cells, and did not contain 



214 THE H'lVE AND HONEY-BEE. 

We have yet, however, to describe under what circum- 
stances the majority of hives become queenless. More 
queens, whose loss cannot be supplied by the bees, perish 
vjhen they leave the hive to meet the drones, than in all 
other ways. After the departure of the first swarm, the 
mother-stock and all the after-swarms have young queens 
which must leave the hive for impregnation ; their larger 
size and slower flight make them a more tempting prey 
to birds, while others are dashed, by sudden gusts of wind, 
against some hard object, or blown into the water : for, 
with all their queenly dignity, they are not exempt from 
mishaps common to the humblest of their race. 

In spite of their caution to mark the position and ap- 
pearance of their habitation (p. 125), the young queens 
frequently make a fatal mistake, and are destroyed, by 
attempting to enter the wrong hive. This accounts for 
the notorious fact, that ignorant bee-keepers, with forlorn 
and rickety hives, no two of which look just alike, are 
often more successful than those whose hives are of the 
best construction. The former — unless their hives are ex- 
cessively crowded — lose but few queens, while the latter 
lose them almost in exact proportion to the taste and skill 
which induced them to make their hives of uniform size, 
shape, and color. 

I first learned the full extent of the danger of crowded 
Apiaries, in the Summer of 1854. To protect my hives 
against extremes of heat and cold, they were ranged, side 

a trace of spermatic filaments." While the intestines of these queens contained 
only a little limpid excrement, the rectum of a worker, examined at the same time, 
was filled with an enormous quantity of a dark, offensive substance. 

These drone-laying colonies were supplied with queens from other stocks, which, 
when opened in April, were found to have raised queens in February. One queen 
was laying worker, and the other drone-eggs, and the former must have been im- 
pregnated in March, and probably by some of the brood of the drone-laying 
queens. Might not a few drone-laying queens be kept to advantage in largo 
Apiaries? 



LOSS OF THE QUEEN. 215 

by side, over a trench, so that, through ventilators in their 
bottom-boards, they might receive, in Summer, a cooler, 
and in Winter, a much warmer air, than the external 
atmosphere. By this arrangement — winch failed entirely 
to answer its design — many of my colonies became queen- 
less, and I soon ascertained under what circumstances 
young queens are ordinarily lost. 

From the great uniformity of the hives in size, shape, 
color, and height, it was next to impossible for a young 
queen to be sure of returning to her hive. The difficulty 
was increased, from the fact that the ground before the 
trench was free from bushes or trees, and no hive — except 
the two end ones, which did not lose their queens — could 
have its location more easily remembered, from its relative 
position to some external object. Most of the hives thus 
placed, which had young queens, became queenless, al- 
though supplied with other queens, again and again ; and 
many, even of the workers, were constantly entering hives 
adjoining their own. 

If a traveler should be carried, in a dark night, to a 
hotel in a strange city, and on rising in the morning, 
should find the strees filled with buildings precisely like it, 
he would be able to return to his proper place, only by pre- 
viously ascertaining its number, or by counting the houses 
between it and the corner. Such a numbering faculty, 
however, was not given to the queen-bee ; for who, in a 
state of nature, ever saw a dozen or more hollow trees or 
other places frequented by bees, standing close together, 
precisely alike in size, shape, and color, with their en- 
trances all facing the same way, and at exactly the same 
height from the ground ! 

On describing to a friend my observations on the loss of 
queens, he told me that in the management of his hens, 
he had fallen into a somewhat similar mistake. To econo- 



216 THE HIVE AND HONEY-BKE. 

mize room, and to giye easier access to his setting hens, he 
had partitioned a long box into a dozen or more separate 
apartments. The hens, in returning to their nests, were 
deceived by the similarity of the entrances, so that often 
one box contained two or three unamiable aspirants for 
the honors of maternity, while others were entirely for- 
saken. Many eggs were broken, more were addled, and 
hardly enough hatched to establish one mother as the 
happy mistress of a nourishing family. Had he left hia 
hens to their own instincts, they would have scattered 
their nests, and gladdened his eyes with a numerous off- 
spring. 

Through the length and breadth of our land, bee- 
keepers who suffer heavy losses, from the proximity and 
similarity of their hives, unsuspicious of the true cause of 
their misfortunes, impute them to the bee-moth, or some 
of the many enemies of the bee. Judge Fishback, of 
Batavia, Ohio, informed me, in the Fall of 1854, while on 
a visit to his large Apiary, that he had for many years 
guarded against the loss of young queens, by painting the 
fronts of his hives of different colors, and making their 
entrances face in various ways.* Every bee-keeper, 
whose hives are so arranged that the young queens are 
liable to make mistakes, must count upon heavy losses. 
If he puts a number of hives, under circumstances similar 
to those described, upon a bench, or the shelves of a bee- 
house, he can never keep their number good without con- 
stant renewal. The first swarms, and those stocks which 
do not swarm, as they retain their fertile queens, will do 
well enough ; but many of those that swarm will be robbed 

* John Mills, in a work published at London, in 1766, gives (p. 93) the following 
directions : — "Forget not to paint the months of your colonies with different colors, 
as red, white, blue, yellow, &c, in form of a half-moon, or square, that the bees 
may the better know their own home." Such precautions preserved the stocks 
from becoming queenless» although they were not adopted for that end. 



Fig. 51. 



Plate XVI. 




Fig. 52. 




LOSS OF THE QUEEN. 217 

by other bees, or fall a prey to the moth, or gradually 
dwindle away. 

As the bee-keeper, from limited space or other reasons, 
may prefer to keep his colonies close together, I have de- 
vised a way of effecting it, without risking the loss of 
the young queens : — 

If he relies upon natural swarming, he should remove 
the ?nother-stock, as soon as it has swarmed, to a new post- 
tion, giving it two or three quarts of bees from the 
swarm, before they have entered the new hive, which is 
to be put on the old stand. These bees having the 
swarming propensity, will supply the place (p. 156) of 
those which subsequently leave. 

If artificial swarming is practiced, the entrances to the 
hives of the nuclei should be marked with a leafy twig, 
and, if possible, made to face differently (p. 189) from 
those of the adjoining stocks. The new colonies should 
be formed as directed on page 186. If two Apiaries are 
used, the artificial swarms may be made in any of the 
ways previously described, and those colonies which have 
queens to be impregnated, removed to the second Apiary. 

The bees are sometimes so excessively agitated when 
their queen leaves for impregnation, that they exhibit all 
the appearance of swarming. They seem to have an in- 
stinctive perception of the dangers which await her, and 
I have known them to gather around her and confine her, 
as though they could not bear to have her leave. If a 
queen is lost in what the Germans call " her wedding ex- 
cursion," the bees of an old stock will gradually decline ; 
those of an after-swarm, will either unite with another 
colony, or speedily dwindle away. 

It would be interesting, could we learn how bees become 
informed of the loss of their queen. When she is taken 
from them, under circumstances that excite the whole 
10 



218 THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 

colony, we can easily see how they find it out ; for as a 
tender mother, in time of danger, is all anxiety for her 
helpless children, so bees, when alarmed, always seek first 
to assure themselves of the safety of their queen. If, 
however, the queen is very carefully removed, a day, or 
even more, may elapse, before they realize their loss * 
How do they first become aware of it ? Perhaps some 
dutiful bee, anxious to embrace her mother, makes diligent 
search for her through the hive. The intelligence that 
she cannot be found being noised abroad, the whole family 
is speedily alarmed. At such times, instead of calmly 
conversing, by touching each other's antennae, they may 
be seen violently striking them together, and by the most 
impassioned demonstrations manifesting their agony and 
despair. 

I once removed the queen of a small colony, the bees 
of which took wing and filled the air, in search of her. 
Although she was returned in a few minutes, royal cells 
were found two days later. The queen was unhurt, and 
the cells untenanted. Was this work begun by some that 
did not believe the others, when assured that she was 
safe ? or from the apprehension that she might be removed 
again? 

All colonies whose queens are to be impregnated should 
be watched, that the Apiarian may be seasonably apprised 
of their loss. Such colonies, if provided with suitable 
brood-comb, will seldom forsake the hive, if the queen is 
lost. An old stock which cannot be suppplied with a 
queen or the means of raising one, should be broken up, 

* " For eighteen hours after the queen was taken away, the usual labors of the 
hive proceeded as regularly as if she were still present ; but no sooner was her loss 
discovered than all was agitation and tumult — the bees hurried backward and for- 
ward over the combs, with a loud noise, rushed in crowds out of the hive, as if 
going to swarm, and in short, exhibited all the symptoms of bereavement and de • 
Bpair."— Bevan, p. 24. 



LOSS OF THE QUEEN. 219 

and the bees added to another colony ; a new swarm, 
unless a queen nearly mature can be given to it (p. 149), 
should always be broken up. If the new colony is large, 
it will be better, instead of breaking it up, to give it a 
queen from some old stock which can easily raise another. 
If, however, the Apiarian uses movable-comb hives, and 
pursues the nucleus system (p. 188), he will always have 
queens on hand for all emergencies. 

Huber has proved that bees do not ordinarily transport 
the eggs of the queen from one cell to another. I have, 
however, in several instances, known them to carry worker- 
eggs into royal cells. Mr. Wagner put some queenless 
bees, brought from a distance, into empty combs that had 
lain for two years in his garret. When supplied with 
brood, they raised their queen in this old comb ! Mr. 
Richard Colvin, of Baltimore, and other Apiarian friends, 
have communicated to me instances almost as striking. 

Having described the precautions necessary to prevent 
the loss of queens, it remains to show how the bee-keeper 
can ascertain that a hive is queenless, and how he can 
remedy such a misfortune. As soon as the bees begin to 
fly briskly in the Spring, a stock which does not industri- 
ously gather pollen,* or accept of rye flour, and which 
refuses clean water, given to it in an empty comb, is 
almost certain to have no queen, or one that is not fertile — 
unless it is on the eve of being destroyed by worms, or 
of perishing from starvation. 

A stock is sure to be queenless, if, after taking its first 
Spring-flight, the bees, by roaming, in an inquiring manner, 
in and out of the hive (p. 67), show that some great 

* u Mr. Kandolph Peters, of Philadelphia, had a stock which he was satisfied 
was queenless, as the bees did not carry in pollen for 28 days. I put a queen into 
the hive, he holding a watch in his hand, and in 3X minutes from the time she was 
introduced, a bee was seen to enter with pollen on its legs ! We both observed 
the entrance for some time, and saw many bees carry in pollen. ,, — P. J Maiian. 



220 THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 

calamity has befallen them. Those that come from the 
fields, instead of entering the hive with that dispatchful 
haste so characteristic of a bee returning, well loaded, to 
a prosperous home, usually linger about the entrance with 
an idle and dissatisfied appearance, and the colony is rest- 
less, late in the day, when other stocks are quiet Their 
home, like that of a man who is cursed in his domestic 
relations, is a melancholy place, and they enter it only 
with reluctant and slow-moving steps. 

And here, if permitted to address a word of friendly 
advice, I would say to every wife — Do all that you can 
f o make your husband's home a place of attraction. 
When absent from it, let his heart glow at the thought of 
returning to its dear enjoyments ; as he approaches it, let 
his countenance involuntarily assume a more cheerful ex- 
pression, while his joy-quickened steps proclaim that he 
feels that there is no place like the cheerful home where 
his chosen wife and companion presides as its happy and 
honored Queen.* If your home is not full of dear de- 
lights, try all the virtue of winning words and smiles, 
and the cheerful discharge of household duties, and ex- 
haust the utmost possible efficacy of love, and faith, and 
prayer, before those words of fearful agony, 

"Anywhere, anywhere 
Out of the world !" 

are extorted from your despairing lips, as you realize that 
there is no home for you, until you have passed into that 
habitation not fashioned by human hands, or inhabited by 
human hearts. 

Although when bees commence their work in the Spring, 

* "The tenth and last species of women were made out of a bee; and happy is 
the man who gets such a one for his wife. She is full of virtue and prudence, and 
Is the best wife that Jupiter can bestow/V-SpTXTATOTC, No. 209. 



they usual 



LOSS OF THE QUEEN. 221 



iey usually give reliable evidence either that all is well, 
or that ruin lurks within, if their first flight is not noticed, 
it is sometimes difficult, in the common hives, to get at 
the truth. If the bees are driven up among the combs, 
by smoke, the presence or absence of brood may often be 
ascertained. If a few imperfect bees are found on the 
bottom-board, or in front of the entrance, it shows that 
the hive has a fertile queen. 

I strongly advise giving every movable-comb hive a 
thorough examination, as soon as the bees begin to work 
in the Spring.* The combs, with the adhering bees, may 
be put into a clean hive, and the old one, after being 
cleansed from everything offensive to the delicate senses 
of the bees, may be given to another stock. 

In making this thorough cleansing of his hives, the 
Apiarian will learn which require aid, and which can lend. 
a helping hand to others ; and any one needing repairs, 
may be put in order before being used again. Such hives, 
if occasionally re-painted, will last for generations, and 
prove cheaper, in the long run, than any other kind. 

If, in the Spring examination, a hive has no queen, it 
should be supplied, if populous, with one from a weaker 
stock. If it is small, comb, with hatching bees,f should 
be given to it from a stronger colony. Or it may change 

* I would refer those, who think that " it is too much trouble" to examine their 
hives in the Spring, to the practice of the ancient bee-keepers, as set forth by 
Columella : — " The hives should be opened in the Spring, that all the filth which 
was gathered in them during the Winter may be removed. Spiders, which spoil 
their combs, and the worms from which the moths proceed, must be killed. When 
the hive has been thus cleaned, the bees will apply themselves to work with the 
greater diligence and resolution." The sooner those abandon bee-keeping, who 
consider the proper care of their bees as M too much trouble," the better for them- 
selves and their unfortunate bees. 

t That class of bee-keepers who suppose that all such operations are the " new- 
fangled " inventions of modern times, will be surprised to learn that Columella, 
1800 years ago, recommended strengthening feeble stocks, by cutting out combi 
from stronger colonies, containing workers "just gnawing out of their cells.* 



222 THE HIYE AND HONEY-BEE. 

stands with a strong stock, when the bees are actively 
gathering stores ; or bees brought from a distance may be 
added to it * If it raises a queen before she can be 
seasonably impregnated, she may be killed, and more 
brood-comb given to them. The smallest stocks may thus 
be preserved until the drones appear, by which time they 
may be made as strong as is desired. The stocks deprived 
of their queens should be managed in the same way. By 
this device, every queenless stock, however feeble, that 
survives the Winter, may be nursed into profitable 
strength. 

A vigilant eye should be kept upon every colony that 
has not an impregnated queen; and when its queen is 
about a week old it should be examined, and if she has 
become fertile, she will usually be found supplying one of 
the central combs with eggs. If neither queen nor eggs can 
be found, and there are no certain indications that she is 
lost, the hive should be examined a few days later, for some 
queens are longer in becoming impregnated than others, 
and it is often difficult to find an unimpregnated one, on 
account of her adroit way of hiding among the bees. 

If the Apiarian relies on artificial swarming, he may 
deprive his queens of their wings, as soon as they are im- 
pregnated.! In a large Apiary, where many swarms 
might otherwise come off together, this will greatly di- 

* If a common Live is found, in the Spring, to be very much reduced in numbers, 
it can be recruited in the last two ways, provided it has a healthy queen. If it has 
no queen, and is not sufficiently strong to justify giving it one from a weaker stock, 
the bees should be joined to another colony, and the hive reserved, with its combs, 
for future swarms. It should, however, be kept out of the reach of the bee-moth, 
and before it is used again a few of the central combs should be broken out, to see 
that it is not infested by worms. 

t Virgil speaks of clipping" the wings of queens, to prevent them from escaping 
with a swarm. John Mills (1766) quotes the following from an account published 
of the sheep of Spain :— *' The number of bee-hives kept in Spain is incredible. I 
am almost ashamed r.o give under my hand, that I knew a parish priest who had 
five thousand hives. The bees suck all thoir honey from the aromatic flowers 



LOSS OF THE QUEEN. 223 

minish the labor and perplexity of the bee-keeper. I have 
devised a way of doing this, so as to designate the age of 
the queens : — With a pair of scissors, let the wings, on 
one side, of a young queen be carefully cut off: when the 
hives are examined next year, let one of her two remain- 
ing wings be removed, and the last one the third year. 

The fertility of queens usually decreases after the second 
year, and before they die of old age the contents of their 
spermathecas sometimes become exhausted, and they lay 
only drone-eggs.* Unless, therefore, queens are unusually 
fertile, it will be safer to remove them after they have 
entered on their third year.f 

A young queen, or a sealed royal cell, should be given 
to a colony, the second day after the old one is removed — 
for if they raise a queen from the egg^ she may find nearly 
all the cells filled with honey or bee-bread, and the popu- 
lation greatly reduced. 

Early in October — when some brood is usually found in 
every healthy stock, and when all the colonies should be 
examined, with reference to the coming Winter — if any 
are found to be queenless, they should be united to other 
stocks. If, however, the old queens were seasonably re- 
moved, and the stocks that raised young ones were 
properly attended to, few queenless colonies will be found in 



which enamel and perfume two-thirds of the sheep-walks. This priest cautiously 
seizes the queens in a small crape fly-catch, and then clips off their wings. He 
assured me that he never lost a swarm from the day of this discovery to the day 
he saw me, which was, I think, five years after." — p. 77. 

* Pcisel says, that a queen that has suffered from hunger for 24 hours never re- 
covers her wonted fertility. I shall show, in another place, that after recovering 
from severe cold, queens cease to lay worker-eggs. 

t u Queens differ much as to the degree of their fertility. Those are best which 
deposit their eggs with uniform regularity, leaving no cells unsupplied — as tho 
brood hatches at the same time on the same range of comb, which can be again 
supplied : the queen thus losing no time in searching for empty cells."" — Dzierzon. 
In bee-life, as well as in human affairs, those who are systematic, ordinarily accom* 
plish the most. 



224 THE HIVE AND LIONEY-BEE. 

the Fall. At this season, or as soon as forage fails, such 
stocks may usually be detected by the incessant attempts 
of other colonies to rob them. 

The neglect of a colony to expel its drones, when they 
are destroyed in other hives, is always a suspicious sign, 
and generally an indication that it has no queen. Healthy 
stocks almost always destroy the drones, as soon as 
forage becomes scarce. In the vicinity of" Philadelphia, 
there were only a few days in June, 1858, when it did not 
rain, and in that month the drones were destroyed in most 
of the hives. When the weather became more propitious, 
others were bred to take their place. In seasons when 
the honey-harvest has been abundant and long protracted, 
I have known the drones to be retained, in Northern 
Massachusetts, until the 1st of November. If bees could 
gather honey and could swarm the whole year, the 
drones would probably die a natural death. 

The importance of preventing the over-production- of 
drones has been corroborated by the discovery of Mr. P. 
J. Mahan, that those leaving the hive have quite a large 
drop of honey in their stomachs — while those returning 
from their pleasure excursions, having digested their 
dinners, are prepared for a new supply.* 

" The drone," says quaint old Butler, " is a gross, sting- 
less bee, that spendeth his time in gluttony and idleness. 
Por howsoever he brave it, with his round velvet cap, his 
side gown, his full paunch, and his loud voice, yet is he 
but an idle companion, living by the sweat of others' brows. 

* Aristotle (History of Animals, Book IX., Chap. XI.), speaks of the irregular 
and thick combs built by some stocks, and the superabundance of drones issuing 
from them. He notices, also, the destruction of the drones when bee-forage fails, 
and describes their excursions as follows :-r-" The drones, when they go abroad, rise 
into the air with a circular flight, as though to take violent exercise, and when they 
have taken enough, return home, and gorge themselves with honey." Columella 
says, that the proper time for removing the surplus honey is when the bees expeJ 
the drones. 



LOSS OF THE QUEEN. 225 

He worketh not at all, either at home or abroad, and yet 
spendeth as much as two laborers : you shall never find 
his maw without a drop of the purest nectar. In the heat 
of the day he fiieth abroad, aloft and about, and that with 
no small noise, as though he would do spme great act ; 
but it is only for his pleasure, and to get him a stomach, 
and then returns he presently to his cheer." 

It has already been stated (p. 51), that the bee-keepers 
in Aristotle's time were in the habit of destroying the 
excess of drones. They excluded them from the hive — 
when taking their accustomed airing — by contracting the 
entrance with a kind of basket work. Butler recommends 
a similar trap, w^hich he calls a u drone-pot." The arrange- 
ment used in my hives to prevent swarming, will serve 
also to exclude the drones. Towards dark, or early in the 
morning — when clustered, for warmth, in the portico — they 
may be brushed into a vessel of water, and given to 
chickens, which will soon learn to devour them. In ex- 
cluding them from hives having an unimpregnated queen, 
the entrance must be adjusted to let her pass. 

It is interesting to notice the actions of the drones 
when they are excluded from the hive. For a while they 
eagerly search for a wider entrance, or strive to force 
their bulky bodies through the narrow gateway. Finding 
this to be in vain, they solicit honey from the workers, 
and when refreshed, renew their efforts for admission, ex- 
pressing, all the while, with plaintive notes, their deep 
sense of such a cruel exclusion. The bee-keeper, however, 
is deaf to their entreaties ; it is better for him that they 
should stay without, and better for them — if they only 
knew it — to perish by his hands, than to be starved or 
butchered by the unfeeling workers. With movable- 
comb hives, pity and profit may be perfectly reconciled 



1 ' : 



226 THE HIYE AND HONEY-BEE. 

(p. 51), by removing all excess of drone-comb from the 
breeding apartment.* 

In the Summer of 1853, I discovered that after a queen 
is taken from a paper cone (p. 159), the bees will run in 
and out of it for a long time, thus proving that they recog- 
nize ner peculiar scent. It is this odor which causes them 
to run inquiringly over our hands, after we have caught a 
queen, and over any spot where she alighted when her 
swarm came forth. 

This scent of the queen was probably known in Aristo- 
tle's time, who says : " When the bees swarm, if the king 
(queen) is lost, we are told that they all search for him, 
and follow him with their sagacious smell, until they find 
him." Wildman says : " The scent of her body is so at- 
tractive to them, that the slightest touch of her along any 
place or substance will attract the bees to it, and induce 
them to pursue any path she takes."f 

The intelligent bee-keeper will readily perceive not only 
how the loss of queens may be remedied, by the movable- 
comb hive, but how any operation, which in other hives 
is performed with difficulty, if at all, is in this rendered 
easy and certain. No hive, however, can make the 
ignorant or negligent very successful, unless they live in a 
region where the climate is so propitious, and the honey 
resources so abundant, that bees will prosper in spite of 
mismanagement or neglect. 

Those who have not the leisure or disposition to manage 
their own bees, may, with my hives, entrust the care of 

* If a number of drones are confined in a small box, they give forth a strong 
odor: Swammerdam supposed that the queen was impregnated by this scent 
( aura seminalis ") of the drones. 

t Before becoming acquainted with these authors, I supposed myself to hays 
made an original discovery. Mr. P. J. Mahan informs me that after handling the 
queen he has had bees several times alight upon his fingers, when he was a mile or 
more from his Apiary, 



LOSS OF THE QUEEN. 227 

them to competent persons. The business of the gardener 
seems naturally associated with that of the Apiarian ; and 
practical gardeners may find the management of bees, for 
their employers, quite a lucrative part of their profession. 
With but little trouble, they can make new colonies, re- 
move the surplus honey, and on the approach of Winter 
prepare the bees to resist its rigors. 



228 THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 



CHAPTER XII. 

THE BEE-MOTH, AND OTHER ENEMIES OF BEES — DISEASES 

OF BEES. 

The Bee-Moth [Tinea mellonella) is mentioned by 
Aristotle, Virgil, Columella and other ancient authors, as 
one of the most formidable enemies of the honey-bee. 
Modern writers, almost without exception, have regarded 
it as the plague of their Apiaries ; while in this country its 
ravages have been so fatal, that the majority of culti- 
vators have abandoned bee-keeping in despair. Most of 
the contrivances devised against it have proved worthless, 
and not a few have aided its nefarious designs. 

Having closely studied its habits, I am able to show 
how careful bee-keepers may protect their colonies from 
being ruined by its assaults. The careless will obtain a 
"moth-proof" hive only when the sluggard finds a 
"weed-proof" soil. Before stating how to circumvent 
the moth, its habits will be briefly described. 

Swammerdam speaks of two species of the bee-moth 
(called in his time the " bee-wolf"), one much larger than 
the other. Linnaeus and Reaumur also describe two 
kinds — Tinea cereana and Tinea mellonella. Most 
writers suppose the former to be the male, and the latter 
the female of the same species. The following description 
is abridged from Dr. Harris' Report on the Insects of 
Massachusetts : 

" Very few of the Tinece exceed or even equal it in 
size. In its adult state it is a winged moth, or miller, 
measuring, from the head to the tip of the closed wings, 







ENEMIES OF BEE?. 229 



from five-eighths to three-quarters of an inch in length, 
and its wings expand from one inch and one-tenth to one 
inch and four-tenths. The fore-wings shut together flatly 
on the top of the back, slope steeply downwards at the 
sides, and are turned up at the end somewhat like the 
tail of a fowl. The female is much larger than the male, 
and much darker-colored. There are two broods of these 
insects in the course of the year. Some winged moths of 
the first brood begin to appear towards the end of April 
or early in May — earlier or later, according to climate and 
season. Those of the second brood are most abundant in 
August ; but some may be found between these periods, 
and even much later." 

No writer with whom I am acquainted has given such 
an exact description of the difference between the sexes, 
that they can always be readily distinguished. The 
beautiful wood-cuts of the moths, larvae, and cocoons, 
which I present to my readers, were drawn from nature, 
by Mr. M. M. Tidd, of Boston, Mass., and engraved by 
Mr D. T. Smith, of the same city. A large number of 
specimens were furnished to Mr. Tidd, 
and great accuracy has been secured. 
He seems first to have noticed that the 
*"*.*3*t- tongue of the female projects so as 

to resemble a beak, while that of the 
male is very short.* 

While some males are larger than some females, and 
some females much lighter-colored than 
the average of males, and occasionally 
some males as dark as the darkest 
females, the peculiarity of the tongue 
of the female is so marked, that she 
may always be distinguished at a glance. 

* Dr. Harris speaks of the tongue of the moth as "very short, and hardly 
visible.' 1 This is true only of that of the male. 





230 



THE HIVE AND HONEY-BT^K. 




Female. 




Small Male. 



The tongue of the female is double, 
and the line of separation is shown 
in the figure in which she is repre- 
sented as lying on her back. Both 
male and female were accurately copied 
from specimens of the average size and 
form. 

In this sketch, an under-sized male is 
represented.* His color was- so dark 
that, but for the tongue, he might easily 
have been mistaken for a female of a 
different and much smaller species, f 

These insects are seldom seen on the wing, unless started 
from their lurking places about the hives, until towards 
dark. On cloudy days, however, the female may be 
noticed endeavoring, before sunset, to gain an entrance 
into the hives. " If disturbed in the daytime," says Dr. 
Harris, "they open their wings a little, and spring or 
glide swiftly away, so that it is very difficult to seize or to 
hold them.J In the evening, they take wing, when the 

* The legs are shown in this figure. In the sitting position, they are usually 
concealed, as in the preceding figures. These drawings appear to better advantago 
in Plate XIII. 

t As all the specimens submitted to Mr. Tidd were taken from two adjoining 
hives, very late in the Fall, it is possible that observations at some other season, 
and in different localities, may confirm the view of those who believe that there 
are two species. Mr. Tidd, while experimenting to ascertain the sexes, found that 
a female, as soon as she was pinned fast, thrust out her ovipositor, which works 
with a telescopic motion, and began to feel for some crevice in which to deposit 
her eggs. Some cracks being made with a small penknife in the wood to which 
{•he was fastened, she at once proceeded to fill them with eggs. Her abdomen 
whs ther. cut off, and the egg-laying process continued as before, while the rest of 
the body leisurely walked away ! The abdomen was now dissected, so as to show 
the ducts of the ovaries, and, even in this mutilated condition, she thrust out her 
ovipositor, all the while carefully seeking for appropriate crevices in which to 
deposit her eggs ! I have repeated, with similar results, these experiments, so sug- 
gestive of curious speculations as to insect volition. 

$ They are surprisingly agile, both on foot and on the wing, the motions of a bee 
being very slow, in comparison. " They are," says Reaumur, "the most nimble- 
footed creatures that I know." 



ENEMIES OF Bt!J 231 

bees are at rest, and hover around the hive, till, having 
found the door, they go in and lay their eggs " " If the 
approach to the Apiary," says Bevan, " be observed of 
a moonlight evening, the moths will be found flying or 
running round the hives, watching an opportunity to en- 
ter, whilst the bees that have to guard the entrances 
against their intrusion, will be seen acting as vigilant 
sentinels, performing continual rounds near this important 
post, extending their antennae to the utmost, and moving 
them to the right and left alternately. Woe to the un- 
fortunate moth that comes within their reach !" " It is 
curious," says Huber, " to observe how artfully the moth 
knows how to profit by the disadvantage of the bees, 
which require much light for seeing objects, and the pre- 
cautions taken by the latter in reconnoitering and expel- 
ling so dangerous an enemy." 

" Those that are prevented from getting within the 
hive, lay their eggs in cracks on the outside ; and the little 
wc-rm-like caterpillars hatched therefrom, easily cree]3 into 
the hive through the cracks, or gnaw a passage for them- 
selves under the edges of it."* — Dr. Harris. 

" As soon as hatched, the worm encloses itself in a case 
of white silk, which it spins around its body ; at first it is 
like a mere thread, but gradually increases in size, and, 
during its growth, feeds upon the cells around it, for 
which purpose it has only to put forth its head, and find 
its Avants supplied. It devours its food with great avidity, 
and, consequently, increases so much in bulk, that its gal- 
lery soon becomes too short and narrow, and the creature 
is obliged to thrust itself forward and lengthen the gal- 
lery, as well to obtain more room as to procure an acldi- 

* If movable bottom-boards are used, it will be next to impossible to prevent 
the moth from laying her eggs between them and the edges of the hives. The 
smallest opening will enable her to thrust in her ovipositor, and place her eggi 
where her progeny will find an easy admission to the hive. 



232 THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 

tional supply of food. Its augmented size exposing it to 
attacks from surrounding foes, the wary insect fortifies 
its new abode with additional strength and thickness, by 
blending with the filaments of its silken covering a mix- 
ture of wax and its own excrement, for the external 
barrier of a new gallery,* the interior and partitions of 




which are lined with a smooth surface of white silk, which 
admits the occasional movements of the insect, without 
injury to its delicate texture. In performing these opera- 
tions, the insect might be expected to meet with opposi- 
tion from the bees, and to be gradually rendered more 
assailable as it advanced in age. It never, however, 
exposes any part but its head and neck, both of which 
are covered with stout helmets, or scales, impenetrable to 
the sting of a bee, as is the composition of the galleries 
that surround it." — Bevan. 

The worm is here given of full size, and with all its 
peculiarities carefully repre- 
sented. The scaly head is 
shown in one of the worms; 
while the three pairs of claw- 
like fore legs, and the five pairs 
of hind ones, which are suckers, are clearly delineated. 
The tail is also furnished with two of these suckers. The 
breathing holes are seen on the back. 

* This representation of the web, or gallery of the worm, was copied from 

Swammerdam. 




unamDB OF BEES. 233 

Wax is the chief food of these worms* When obliged 
to steal their living among a strong stock of bees, they 
seldom fare well enough to reach the size which they 
attain when rioting at pleasure among the full combs of a 
discouraged population. In about three weeks, the larvaj 
stop eating, and seek a suitable place for encasing them- 
selves in their silky shroud. In hives where they reign 
unmolested, almost any place will answer their purpose, 
and they often pile their cocoons one on another, or join 
them together in long rows. They sometimes occupy the 
empty combs, so that their cocoons resemble the capping 
of the honey-cells. In Plate XIX., Fig. oQ, Mr. Tidd 
has given a drawing, accurate in size and form, of a 
curious instance of this kind. The black spots, resembling 
grains of gunpowder, are the excrements of the worms. 
In hives strongly guarded by healthy bees, many a worm, 
while prying about to find a snug hiding place, is seized 
by the nape of the neck, and served with an instant writ 
of ejectment. If a hive is thoroughly made, it runs a 
dangerous gauntlet, as it passes, in search of some 
. crevice, through the ranks of its enraged foes. Its mo- 
tions, however, are exceedingly quick, and it is full of 
cunning devices, being able to crawl backwards, to twist 
round on itself, to curl up almost into a knot, and to flat- 
ten itself out like a pancake. If obliged to leave the 
hive, it gets under some board or concealed crack, spins 
its cocoon, and patiently awaits its transformation. In 
most hives, it readily finds a crack into which it can 
creep, or a small space between the movable bottom- 

* "Larvae fed exclusively on pure wax will die, wax being a non-nitrogenoua 
substance, and not furnishing the aliment required for their perfect develop- 
ment/' — Donhoff. 

Tnis statement agrees with the fact, that the larvae prefer the brood-combs, and 
that the combs of an old stock are more liable to be devoured than those of a 
new one. 



234 THE HIVE AND HONKY-BEE. 

board and the edges of the hive. It can pass through a 
very small crevice, and as soon as safe from the bees, it 
will begin to enlarge its cramped tenement, by gnawing 
into the solid wood. The time required for the larvae to 
break forth into winged insects, varies with the tempera- 
ture to which they are exposed, and the season of the 
year when they spin their cocoons.* I have known them 
to spin and hatch in ten or eleven days ; and they often 
spin so late in the Fall, as not to emerge until the ensuing 
Spring. 

The male usually keeps away from the hive, but the 
female seeks in every way to gain an entrance. If the 
stock is weak and discouraged, she lays her eggsf among 

* In November (1858), I procured a large number of cocoons for winter obser- 
vations. From many of them, the moths quickly emerged. In others, the larvae 
slowly changed into pupae or crysalids ; while, in others still, after being exposed 
for more than two months to a summer temperature, they remained in the worm 
state. A few were exposed for six weeks to a uniform temperature of over 80°, 
and only one passed into the winged moth. Some, after being taken out of their 
cocoons six times, would envelop themselves in a new shroud. 

Dr. Donhoff says, that the larvae become motionless at a temperature of from 3S° 
to 40°, and entirely torpid at a lower temperature. A number which he left all 
Winter in his summer-house, revived in the Spring, and passed through their 
natural changes. He appears to have been more successful than myself in induc- 
ing them to develop in Winter, by artificial heat ; but this may be owing to the 
fact that he experimented with larvae which greedily ate the food given to them, 
and not as I <Md, with worms which had spun their cocoons. Further experi- 
ments are needed, in order to determine whether dilatory development is peculiar 
to those reaching maturity late in the Fall, or is caused by the sudden check 
given by cold weather. 

" If, when the thermometer stood at 10 c , I dissected a chrysalis, it was not frozen, 
but congealed immediately afterwards. This shows that, at so low a temperature, 
the vital force is sufficient to resist frost. In the hive, the chrysalids and larvae, in 
various stages of development, pass the Winter in a state of torpor, in corners and 
crevices, and among the waste on the bottom-boards. In March or April, they 
revive, and the bees of strong colonies commence operations for dislodging them." 
— Donhoff. 

Some larvae which I exposed to a temperature of 6° below zero, froze solid, and 
never revived. Others, after remaining for 8 hours in a temperature of about 12°, 
seemed, after reviving, to remain for weeks in a crippled condition. 

+ " The eggs of the bee-moth (see Plate XIII., Fig. 44) are perfectly round, and 
very small, being only about one-eighth of a line in diameter. In the ducts of the 
ovarium, they are ranged togothei in the form of a rosary. They are not developed 



ENEMIES OF BEES. 235 

the combs, or inserts them in the corners or crevices, 
or among the refuse wax and bee-bread on the bottom- 
board, where her progeny can be concealed and nourished 
till they are able to reach the combs. 

In Plate XX., Fig. 57, Mr. Tidd has faithfully de- 
lineated, and Mr. Smith skillfully engraved, the black 
mass of tangled webs, cocoons, excremerits, and perfo- 
rated combs, which may be found in a hive where the 
worms have completed their work of destruction. 

The entrance of the moth into a hive and the ravages 
committed by her progeny, forcibly illustrate the havoc 
which vice often makes when admitted to prey unchecked 
on the precious treasures of the human heart. Only some 
tiny eggs are deposited by the insidious moth, which give 
birth to very innocent-looking worms ; but let them once 
get the control, and the fragrance* of the honied dome is 
soon corrupted, the hum of happy industry stilled, and 
everything useful and beautiful ruthlessly destroyed. 

The honey-bee is not a native of the New World, 
and, when brought here, was called by the Indians the 

consecutively, like those of the queen bee, but are found in the ducts, fully and 
perfectly formed, a few days after the female moth emerges from the cocoon. She 
deposits them, usually, in little clusters on the combs. If we wish to witness the 
discharge of the eggs, it is only necessary to seize a female moth, two or three days 
old, with finger and thumb, by the head — she will instantly protrude her ovipo- 
sitor, and the eggs may then be distinctly seen passing along through the semi- 
transparent duct. (Sec Plate XIII., Fig. 46, C.) 

" Last Summer I reared a bee-moth larva in a small box. It spun a cocoon, 
from which issued a female moth. Holding her by the head, I allowed her to 
deposit eggs on a piece of honey-comb. Three weeks afterwards, I examined the 
comb, and found on it some web and two larvae. The eggs were all shrivelled and 
dried up, except a few which were perforated, and from which, I suppose, the 
larvae emerged. This appears to be a case of true parthenogenesis in the bee 
moth." — Translated from Dr. Donhoff by S. Wagner. 

As among hundreds of specimens furnished to Mr. Tidd very few males were 
noticed, I conjectured that the eggs of these females would hatch without impreg- 
nation, and took measures to have Dr. Joseph Leidy investigate the subject. It 
seems, however, that in this matter, our German brethren have the priority 

* The «lor of the moth and larvce is very offensive. 



236 THE HIVE AND HONEY-BKE. 

white man's fly.* Longfellow, in his " Song of Hiawatha," 
in describing the advent of the European to the New 
World, makes his Indian warrior say of the bee and the 
white clover : — 

" Wheresoever they move, before them 
Swarms the stinging fly, the Ahmo, 
Swarms the bee, the honey-maker ; 
Wheresoever they tread, beneath them 
Springs a flower unknown among us, 
Springs the White Man's Foot in blossom." 

As the bees flourished for years undisturbed by the 
moth, it seems probable that it was not brought over in 
the first hives, but at a much later period. In whatever 
way it was introduced, it has so multiplied in our propi- 
tious climate of hot summers, that few districts are now 
exempt from its ravages. 

Fifty years ago our markets were proportionably better 
supplied with honey than they now are, and large tubs 
filled with snow-white combs were a common sight. 

Many Apiarians contend that newly-settled countries 
are most favorable to the bee ; and an old German adage 

runs thus : — 

" Bells' ding dong, 
And choral song, 
Deter the bee 
From industry : 
But hoot of owl, 
And ' wolf's long howl/ 
Incite to moil 
And steady toH." 

* " It is suprising in what countless swarms the bees have overspread the far West, 
within but a moderate number of years. The Indians consider them the harbingers 
of the white man, as the buffalo is of the red man, and say that, in proportion as 

the bee advances, the Indian and the buffalo retire They have been tht, 

heralds of civilization, steadily preceding it as it advances from the Atlantic 
borders ; and some of the ancient settlers of the West pretend to give the v <M-y 
year when the honey-bee first crossed the Mississippi. At present it swarm* 






ENEMIES OF BEKS. 

Others affirm that our colonies are too numerous to find 
sufficient food. That neither of these reasons account for 
the change, will be subsequently shown. Others lay all 
the blame on the moth, and others still, on our departure 
from the old-fashioned mode of keeping bees. 

It is undoubtedly true that the moth so super-abounds 
in many districts, that no profit can be derived from 
managing bees in the simple way which was once so suc- 
cessful. Often the old bee-keeper, after hiving his swarms, 
never looked at them again until the Fall, when all 
the colonies which had too few bees, or were too light to 
survive the Winter, were condemned to the brimstone 
pit. Some of the heaviest were also killed for the sake 
of their honey, and the very best were reserved for stock 
hives. 

In a newly-settled country, where weeds are almost 
unknown, the farmer who plants his corn and "lets it 
alone," may often harvest a remunerative crop. If, in 
process of time, as the weeds increase, he continues to 
plough and plant in the "good old way," he will only be 
laughed at for complaining that the pestiferous weeds have 
caused his corn to "run out." And yet, with equal 
folly, many bee-keepers do not understand why plans 
which answered when moths were unknown or were very 
scarce, cannot be made to succeed at the present time. 

If the old plans had been rigidly adhered to, the 
ravages of the moth, destructive as they must have been, 
would never have been as great as they now are. The 
use of patent hives has contributed to fill the land with 

myriads in the noble groves and forests that skirt and intersect the prairies, ai.d 
extend along the alluvial bottoms of the rivers. It seems to me as if these beauti- 
ful regions answer literally to the description of the land of promise — v aland flow- 
ing with milk and honey j 1 for the rich pasturage of the prairies is calculated to 
sustain herds of cattle as countless as the sanls upon the sea-shore, while the 
flowers with which they are enamelled render them a very paradise for the nectar- 
seeking bee. v — Washington Irving, Tour on the Prairie*, Chap. IX. 



238 THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 

the devouring pest. Ever since their introduction, the 
notion has almost universally prevailed that stocks must 
not, under any circumstances, be voluntarily destroyed; 
and hence, thousands of colonies, which, under the old 
system, were mercifully killed, are now left to perish by 
slow starvation, while thousands more are so feeble in the 
Spring that they serve only to breed a host of moths to be 
the pest of the Apiary. 

The truth is, that improved hives, without an improved 
system of management, have done, on the whole, more 
harm than good. In no country have they been so exten- 
sively used as in our own, and no where has the moth so 
completely gained the ascendency. Just so far as they 
have discouraged ordinary bee-keepers from the old plan 
of " taking up" their weak swarms in the Fall, just so far 
have they extended u aid and comfort" to the moth. 
Some of them might, unquestionably, be so managed as, 
in ordinary cases, to protect the bees against the moth ; 
but no hive which does not give the control of the combs, 
can be relied on for all emergencies. As for many of the 
complicated contrivances, which have been devised by 
men ignorant of the first principles of bee-keeping, and 
the " swindle-traps" of sharpers, who, to fill their own 
pockets, would be glad to kill all the bees in the world, 
they not only afford no more security against the moth, 
than the old box-hive, but are full of fixtures, which serve 
no end but to annoy the bees and multiply lurking-places 
for moths and worms. The more they are used, the 
worse the condition of the bees ; just as the more a man 
uses the nostrums of the lying quack, the farther he gets 
from health.* 

* An intelligent man informed me that he paid ten dollars to a" 'be&quack'* 
professing to have an infallible secret for protecting bees against the moth. After 
parting with his money, and learning that this secret consisted in " always keep- 
ing strong stocks," he felt that he had been as grossly imposed upon, as i$ aftei 



ENEMIES OF BEES. 239 

While freely admitting that the old plan of killing the 
ees has, in the hands of the ignorant, met with the best 
lccess, I am persuaded that a more humane and enlight- 
icd system can be made much more profitable. The use 
movable frames permitting, as they do, the weakest 
3cks to be strengthened or united to others, will, I trust, 
due time, introduce the happy era when the following 
epitaph, taken from a German work, might properly be 
placed over every pit of brimstoned bees :* 

HERE RESTS, 

CUT OFF FROM USEFUL LABOR, 

A COLONY OF 

INDUSTRIOUS BEES, 

BASELY MURDERED 

BY ITS 

UNGRATEFUL AND IGNORANT 

OWNER. 

To the epitaph should be appended Thompson's verses : 

" Ah, see, where robbed and murdered in that pit, 
Lies the still heaving hive! at evening snatched, 
Beneath the cloud of guilt-concealing night, 
And fixed o'er sulphur ! while, not dreaming ill, 
The happy people, in their waxen cells, 
Sat tending public cares. 
Sudden, the dark, oppressive steam ascends, 
And, used to milder scents, the tender race, 
By thousands, tumble from their honied dome 
Into a gulf of blue sulphureous flame !" 

The following letter, on the first appearance of the 
bee-moth in this country, from Dr. Jared P. Kirtland, of 

paying a large sum for an infallible life-preserving secret, he had been tnrned off 
with the truism that, to live forever, one must keep well ! 

* Killing bees for their honey was, unquestionably, an invention of the dark 
•ges, when the human family had lost — in Apiarian pursuits, as well as in other 
things — the skill of former ages. In the times of Aristotle, Varro, Columella, and 
riiny, such a Darbarous practice did not exist. The old cultivators took only what 
their bees could spare, killing no stocks, except such as were feeble or diseased. 



240 TMi: HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 

Cleveland, Ohio, who is so widely known for his interest 
in Horticultural and Apiarian pursuits, will be read with 
great interest : 

"Cleveland, Feb. 19th, 1859. 

"Dear Sir: — Until 1805, the honey-bee flourished in 
the United States. At the commencement of the present 
century, a majority of the farmers and mechanics in the 
State of Connecticut cultivated the bee. Few, if any, 
unfavorable contingencies interfered with that pursuit ; the 
simplest form of box-hives was usually employed, though, 
occasionally, a hollow gum, and, in a few instances, the 
conical straw skep supplied their place. 

" In Autumn, the weak colonies, and such of the old as 
were depreciating in value, were destroyed by fire and 
brimstone. The honey thus obtained was sufficiently 
abundant to satisfy the demand ; hence, in those days, 
caps, drawers, and side-boxes, for robbing bees, were not 
employed. 

"During the Spring of the year 1806, 1 read an article, 
in the Boston Patriot, describing the miller and worm, 
and their depredations, and representing them as of re- 
cent appearance in the vicinity of that city. A few 
months subsequently, a neighbor informed me that they 
wen; depredating extensively on his colonies ; and within 
two years of that time, four-fifths of all the Apiaries in 
that vicinity were abandoned.* 

* Judge Fishback, of Batavia, Ohio, says that the ravages of the moth, in his 
Apiary, were much more destructive the second season after its appearance, than 
at any subsequent period. I can only account for this, by supposing that, at first, 
the bees were ignorant of its nature, and took no special precautions to prevent it 
from entering their hives. In Europe, where it has been well known for more than 
two thousand years, its ravages have never been of such a wholesale character. As 
both worms and moth have a peculiar smell, the bees would soon learn to repel 
from their hives, a moth smelling so much like the worms that were devouring 
their combs. 

That bees can learn to defend themselves against new enemies, is proved by tho 
toots related by Huber, of their narrowing their entrances with propolis to keep 



Fig. 53. p LATE £ Vn 




ENEMIES OF BEK8. 241 

" Since that period, a succession of patent hives, whose 
originators were ignorant of the habits of the moth, has 
appeared as its auxiliaries, and the two combined, have 
nearly exterminated the bee from that section of the 
country. The efforts of a few individuals, of more than 
usual perseverance and ingenuity, were occasionally 
attended with limited success. 

"In the Summer of 1810, I resided in the county of 
Trumbull, Ohio. The moth had not reached this part of 
the country, and bee-culture was extensively pursued, and 
with a success I have never witnessed elsewhere. The 
rich German farmers were on a strife to excel each other 
in the number of their colonies. Two or three hundred 
they frequently attained. 

"In 1818, I again visited that county, and permanently 
located there in 1823, and at both periods found that 
pursuit still prospering. In August, 1828, while visiting 
a sick family in Mercer Co., Pa., I observed that a large 
Apiary was suffering severely from the attacks of the 
worm. The proprietor informed me that it had made its 
appearance for the first time the present season. Within 
another year, it spread over all of Northern Ohio, and in 
the Winter of 1831-2, I learned, from members of the 
Legislature, that it had reached every part of our State. 
Similar results followed its progress here, as in the New 
England States. 

" Until the introduction of your system of movable 
frames, no successful means of counteracting its ravages 
were devised. I am happy to say that, by the aid of your 
hives, I have not the least difficulty in meeting it. 
" With great respect, yours, &c, 

" Raw L. L. Langstroth. m Jared P. Kirtland." 

out the large death-head moth (Sphinx atroj)oa\ a single one of which can swallow 
a tablespoonful of honey. 

An Apiarian, from Ohio, sent me some honey-eating moths, much larger than the 
bee-motb. which entered bio weals hives .-.nd frorged themselves with honey. 



242 THE HIVE AND HONEY-BE*,. 

Almost anything hollow will often, for a series of years, 
be successfully tenanted by bees. To see hives, with 
large, open cracks, whose owners are ignorant and care- 
less, bidding defiance to the moth, may, at first sight, 
impair confidence in the value of any precautions. While 
stocks often flourish in such log-cabin hives, others, in 
costly " Bee-Palaces," are frequently devoured by the 
worms — their owner, with all the newest devices in the 
Apiarian line, being unable to protect them against their 
enemies, or to explain why some colonies, like the chil- 
dren of the poor, appear almost to thrive upon neglect, 
while others, like the offspring of the rich, are feeble, 
apparently in exact proportion to the care lavished on them * 

I shall now explain why some stocks flourish in spite of 
neglect, while others, most cared for, fall a prey to the 
moth, and shall show how, in suitable hives, and wr 
proper precautions, the moth may be kept from seriou 
annoying the bees. 

A feeble colony being unable to cover its combs, they 
are often filled with the eggs of the moth, and, frequently, 
their owner becomes aware of their condition only when 
their ruin is completed. But how, can the novice 
know when a stock, in a common hive, is seriouslyf in- 
fested with these all-devouring worms ? The discouraged 
aspect of the bees plainly indicates that there is trouble 
of some kind within, and the bottom-board will be cov- 
ered with pieces of bee-bread mixed Avith the excrement 
of the worms, which looks like grains of gunpowder. % 

* It is very common to hear bee-keepers speak of having " g >od luck," or " bad 
luck, 11 with their bees ; and, as bees are managed, success or failure often seems to 
depend almost entirely upon what is called a luck. 11 

t Inexperienced bee-keepers, who imagine that a colony is nearly ruined when 
they find a few worms, should remember that almost every old stock, however 
strong or healthy, has some of these enemies lurking about its premises. 

X When bees in the Spring prepare their cells for brood, the bottom-board is 
often covered with small pieces of comb and bee-bread ; but if these are not mixed 
with the black excrement, they are proofs of industry, instead of signs of ruin. 



the 

: 



ENEMIES OF BEES. 243 

Early in the Spring, before the stocks become populous, 
the bees should be driven up among their combs by 
smoke, and the bottom-boards cleansed (p. 221). It too 
frequently happens that, in the common hives, nothing can 
be effectually done, even when the bee-keeper is aware of 
the plague within. With movable frames, however, the 
combs, and all parts of the hives, may be carefully 
cleansed, and if a stock is weak or queenless, the proper 
remedies may be easily applied. If a feeble stock cannot 
be strengthened so as to protect its empty combs, they 
may be taken away until the bees are numerous enough 
to need them. 

If the bee-moth were so constituted as to require but a 
small amount of heat for its full development, it would 
become exceedingly numerous early in the Spring, and 
might easily enter the hives and deposit its eggs where it 
pleases : for at this season, not only is there no guard 
maintained by the bees at night, but large portions of 
their comb are quite unprotected. How does every fact 
in the history of the bee, when properly investigated, 
point with unerring certainty to the wisdom of Him who 
made it ! 

Combs having no brood, may be smoked with the fumes 
of burning sulphur, to kill the eggs or worms of the 
moth. If kept from the bees, they should be carefully 
protected, in a dry place, from the moth, and examined 
occasionally, to be smoked again if any worms are 
found. 

Directions have been given on page 140 for preventing 
common hives from swarming so often that they cannot 
protect their empty combs. If not prevented from 
over-swarming, in the movable-comb hives, by methods 
which have been so fully described, some of the combs 
of the mother-stock may be given to the after-swarms, 



244 THE HIYE AND HONEY-BEE. 

instead of being left where they may be attacked by the 
moth. 

The most fruitful cause of the ravages of the moth still 
remains to be described. If a colony becomes hopelessly 
queenless, it must, unless otherwise destroyed, inevitably 
fall a prey to the bee-moth. By watching, in glass hives, 
the proceedings of colonies purposely made queenless, I 
have ascertained that they make little or no resistance to 
her entrance, and allow her to lay her eggs where she 
pleases. The worms, after hatching, appear to have their 
own way, and are even more at home than the dispirited 
bees.* 

How worthless, then, to a queenless colony, are all the 
traps and other devices which, of late years, have been so 
much relied upon. Any passage which admits a bee is 
large enough for the moth, and if a single female enters 
such a hive, she will lay eggs enough to destroy it, how- 
ever strong. Under a low estimate, she would lay, at 
least, two hundred eggs in the hive, and the second gene- 
ration will count by thousands, while those of the third 
will exceed a million.f 

Not only do the bees of a hopelessly queenless hive 

* The fact that queenless stocks do not oppose any effectual resistance to the 
moths or worms — a fact which I once thought to be a discovery of my own — has 
for a long time been well known to the Germans. Mr. Wagner informs me " that 
their best treatises, for many years, speak of this as a settled fact, so that it has 
become an axiom that, if a colony is overpowered by robber-bees, its owner is not 
entitled to compensation, as it was, in all likelihood, queenless, and would cer- 
ta/inly have been destroyed by the moth. 

My attention has been recently called to an article in the Ohio Cultivator for 
1849 page 185, by Micajah T. Johnson, in which, after detailing some experiments, 
he says:— "One thing is certain — if bees, from any cause, should lose their queen, 
and not have the means in their power of raising another, the miller and the 
worms soon take possession. I believe no hive is destroyed by worms while an 
efficient queen remains in it. 11 

This seems to be the earliest published notice of this important fact by any 
American observer. 

t This power of rapid increase accounts for Judge Fishback's and I}r. Kirtland's 
(acts respecting the rapid dissemination of the moth. 



ENEMIES OF BEES. 245 

.make no effectual opposition to the bee-moth, but, by 
their forlorn condition, they positively invite her attacks. 
She appears to have an instinctive knowledge of their con- 
dition, and no art of man can ever keep her out. She will 
pass by other colonies to get at a queenless one, as if aware 
that she will find in it the best conditions for the develop- 
ment of her young ; and thus the strongest colonies, after 
losing their queens, are frequently devoured by the 
worms, while small ones, standing by their side, escape 
unharmed. 

It is certain that a queenless hive seldom maintains a 
guard at the entrance, and does not fill the air with 
the pleasant voice of happy industry. Even to our dull 
ears, the difference between the hum of a prosperous hive 
and the unhappy note of a despairing one is often suffi- 
ciently obvious ; may it not be even more so to the acute 
senses of the provident mother-moth ? 

Her unerring sagacity resembles the instinct by which 
birds that prey upon carrion, single out from the herd a 
diseased animal, hovering over its head with their dismal 
croakings, or sitting in ill-omened flocks on the surround- 
ing trees, watching it as its life ebbs away, and snapping 
their blood-thirsty beaks, impatient to tear out its eyes, 
just glazing in death, and to banquet on its flesh, still 
warm with the blood of life. Let any fatal accident 
befall an animal, and how soon will you see them, — 

" First a speck and then a Vulture," 

speeding, from all quarters of the heavens, their eager 
flight to their destined prey, when only a short time before 
not one could be perceived. 

The common hives not only furnish no reliable remedy 
for the loss of the queen, but, in many cases, their owner 
cannct be sure that his bees are queenless until their 



246 THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 

destruction is certain ; while not unfrequently, after an 
experience of years, he does not "believe that there is such 
a thing as a queen-bee ! In the Chapter on the Loss of 
the Queen, full directions have been given for protecting 
colonies in movable-comb hives, from a calamity which, 
more than all others — the want of food* excepted — 
exposes them to destruction. 

When a colony becomes hopelessly queenless, its 
destruction is certain. Even should the bees retain their 
wonted zeal in gathering stores and defending themselves 
against the moth, they must as certainly perish (p. 58) as a 
carcass must decay, even if it is not assailed by filthy flies 
and ravenous worms. Occasionally, after the death of the 
bees, large stores of honey are found in their hives. Such 
instances, however, though once not uncommon, are now 
rare ; for a motherless hive is almost always assaulted 
by stronger stocks, which, seeming to have an instinctive 
knowledge of its orphanage, hasten to take possession 
of its spoils ; or, if it escape the Scylla of these pitiless plun- 
derers, it is dashed upon a more merciless Charybdis, when 
the miscreant moths find out its destitution. Every year, 
multitudes of hives are bereft of their queens, most of 
which are either robbed by other bees or sacked by the 
moth, or both robbed and sacked, while their owner im- 
putes all the mischief to something else than the real cause. 

To one acquainted with the habits of the moth, the 
bee-keeper who is constantly lamenting its ravages, 
seems almost as much deluded as a farmer would be who, 
after diligently searching for his missing cow, and finding 
her nearly devoured by carrion worms, should denounce 
these worthy scavengers as the primary cause of her 
untimely end. 

* Colonies which are almost starved become almost as indifferent to the attacks 
of the moth as those which have no queen. 



ENEMIES OF BEES. 247 

The bee-moth is the only insect known to feed on wax. 
It has, for thousands of years, supported itself on the 
labors of the bee, and there is no reason to suppose that 
it will ever become exterminated. In a state of nature, 
a queenless hive, or one whose inmates have died, being 
of no further account, the mission of the moth is to 
gather up its fragments that nothing may be lost.* 

From these remarks, the bee-keeper will see the means 
on which he must rely, to protect his colonies from the 
moth. Knowing that strong stocks which have a fertile 
queen, can take care of themselves in almost any- kind 
of hive, he should do all that he can to keep them in this 
condition. They will thus do more to defend themselves 
than if he devoted the w^hole of his time to fighting the 
moth. 

It is hardly necessary, after the preceding remarks, to 
say much upon the various contrivances to which so 
many resort, as a safeguard against the bee-moth. The 
idea that gauze-wire doors, to be shut at dusk and 
opened again at morning, can exclude the moth, will not 
weigh much w r ith those who have seen them on the wing, 
in dull weather, long before the bees have ceased their 
work. Even if they could be excluded by such a con- 
trivance, it w^ould require, on the part of those using it, a 
regularity almost akin to that of the heavenly bodies. 

An ingenious device has been employed for dispensing 

* In the times of Aristotle and Columella, the ravages of the moth were kept 
under by a judicious system of management. It may be seriously questioned 
•whether its extermination in any Apiary would be desirable, unless it could be 
destroyed everywhere else. The bees would soon forget all about it, and if again 
exposed to its attacks, similar results might follow to those described on p. 240 ; for 
unless the bees know how to protect themselves, no art of man can save them, as 
is clearly seen in queenless hives, where they will not attend to their combs. 
Aristotle says, " that good bees expel the moths and worms, but others, from 
slothfulness, neglect their combs, which then perish." His bad bees were doubtless 
those which had no fertile queen. 



248 THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 

with such close supervision, by governing the entrances 
of all the hives by a long lever-like hen-roost, so that 
they may be regularly closed by the crowing and cack- 
ling tribe when they go to bed at night, and opened 
again when they fly from their perch to greet the merry 
morn. Alas ! that so much skill should be all in vain ! 
Some chickens are sleepy, and wish to retire before the 
bees have completed their work, while others, from 
ill-health or laziness, have no taste for early rising, and sit 
moping on their roost, long after the cheerful sun has 
purpled the glowing east. Even if this device could 
entirely exclude the moth, it could not save a colony 
which has lost its queen. The truth is, that most of the 
contrivances on which we are instructed to rely, are 
equivalent to the lock put upon the stable door after the 
horse has been stolen ; or, to attempts to banish the chill 
of death by warm covering, or artificial heat. 

Let me not be understood as asserting that there are 
no means of protecting the common hives from the 
ravages of the bee-moth. If bee-keepers will be careful 
to place their hives where the young queens are not in 
danger of being lost (p. 214), they will lose comparatively 
few of their colonies. The knowledge of this fact will 
enable the Apiarian to contend successfully against the 
moth, let him use what hive he will. He will, undoubt- 
edly, lose many colonies which have become queenless, 
from other causes than the close proximity of their hives, 
and which might be easily saved in movable comb-hives ; 
but his losses will not be of such a wholesale character as 
utterly to dishearten him in his attempts to keep bees. 

The prudent bee-keeper, remembering that " prevention 
is better than cure," will take unwearied pains to destroy, 
as early in the season as he can, the larvae of the moth. 
The destruction of a single female worm may thus bf 



ENEMIES OF BEES. 249 

more effectual than the slaughter of hundreds at a later 
period.* If the common hives are used, the worms will 
usually be found where the hive rests upon the bottom- 
board. Such hives should be propped up on both ends 
with strips of wood, about three-eighths of an inch thick, 
and a piece of woolen-rag put between the bottom-board 
and the back of the hive. The full-grown worm retreat- 
ing to this warm hiding-place to spin its cocoon, may be 
easily caught, and effectually dealt with. Only provide 
some hollow, easily accessible to the worms when they 
wish to spin, and to yourself when you want them, and 
as bees in good condition will not permit them to spin 
among the combs, you can easily entrap them. If the 
hive has lost its queen, and the worms have gained pos- 
session of it, break it up, instead of reserving it as a 
moth-breeder, to infest your Apiary. 

In the movable-comb hive, blocks of a peculiar con- 
struction (Plates HI,, VI., Figs. 11, 17) are used, both to 
entrap the worms and exclude the moth. The only place 
where she can get into these hives, is at the bee-entrance, 
and as abundant ventilation can be given, independent of 
this, it may be contracted to suit all possible emergencies, 

* Few, who have not seen their ravages by lifting out a comb, are aware how 
many young bees fall a prey to the worm as it burrows in the comb. 

Mr. M. Quinby, of St. Johnsville, New York, whose common-sense treatise on 
•* The Mysteries of Bee-Keeping' 1 '' will richly repay perusal; is of opinion that the 
larger number of imperfect bees carried out of the hive in the Spring, have been 
destroyed by the worms. He thinks that enough are often thus lost from a single 
hive to make a moderate swarm of bees. 

This estimate will not seem extravagant, if we take into account the number of 
breeding-cells which are destroyed, and the large vacancies which are often made 
by the bees in cutting out the webs and cocoons of the moth. 

Dr. Kirtland, in an article in the Ohio Farmer, Dec 1S57, alluding to the times 
before the advent of tte bee-moth, says : u In those halcyon days of bee-raising, 
swarms often came out earlier, and in larger numbers, than in recent times. It 
was no unusual occurrence for a Spring swarm to fill the hive with stores and 
young brood so rapidly, as to allow it, also, to throw off a swarm sufficiently early 
for the latter to lay up stores for Winter." 

11* 



250 THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 

and thus force her to pass over a space which, by continually 
narrowing, is more and more easily defended by the bees. 
These traps are slightly elevated, so that the heat and 
smell of the hive pass under them through small open- 
ings, into which the moth can enter, but which do not 
admit her to the hive. These openings, which resemble 
the crevices between the common hives and their bottom- 
boards, she will enter, rather than attempt to force her 
way through the guards ; and, finding here the nibblings 
of comb and bee-bread, in which her young can flourish, 
she deposits her eggs where they may be reached and 
destroyed. All this is on the supposition that the hive 
has a healthy queen, and that the bees have no more 
comb than they can warm and defend ; for if there is no 
guard, or only a feeble resistance, she will penetrate to 
the heart of the citadel to deposit her seeds of mischief. 

These blocks have also grooves which communicate 
with the interior of the hives, and which appear to the 
prowling worm, in search of a comfortable nest, the very 
place — so warm and secure — in which to spin its web, 
and " bide its time." When the hand of the bee-master 
lights upon it, it finds that it has been caught in its own 
craftiness. 

All such contrivances, instead of helping the careless 
bee-keeper, will but give him greater facilities for injuring 
his bees. Worms will spin undisturbed under the blocks, 
and moths lay their eggs ; his traps only affording them . 
more effectual aid. If such incorrigibly careless persons 
will persist in the folly of keeping bees, they should use 
only smooth blocks, which, by regulating the entrance 
to the hives, will assist the bees in defending themselves 
against all enemies which seek admission to their castle.* 

* In Plate V., Fig. 16, a small entrance is shown in front of the hives above the 
frames. If the lower one is closed, and the bees of a feeble colony are allowed to 



ENEMIES of b:;es. 251 

If the worms, by any means, get the ascendancy in 
movable-comb hives, the frames should be removed, 
(p. 243), and the worms destroyed. If proper care has 
been exercised, such an operation will be seldom needed.* 
Shallow vessels of sweetened water, placed on the hives 
after sunset, will often entrap many of the moths. They 
are so fond of sweets, that I have caught them sticking 
fast to pieces of moist sugar candy. Whey and sour 
milk are said to destroy them.f 

I shall close what I have to say upon the bee-moth, 
with an extract from that accomplished scholar, and 
well-known enthusiast in bee-culture, Henry K. Oliver, 
of Massachusetts : 

u The ravages of all the other enemies^ of the bee are 
but a baby bite to the destruction caused by the bee- 
moth. They are a paltry-looking, insignificant little gray- 
haired pestilent race of wax-and-honey-eating and bee- 
destroying rascals, that have baffled all contrivances that 
ingenuity has devised to conquer or destroy them. 

" Your committee would be very glad to be able to 
suggest any effectual means by whioh to assist the honey- 
bee and its friends against the inroads of this foe, whose 
desolating ravages are more despondingly referred to 
than those of any other enemy. 

" He who shall be successful in devising the means of 

ridding the bee-world of this destructive and merciless 

' pest, will richly deserve to be crowned ' King Bee,' in 

use this, it will be kept warm by the heat rising to the top of the hive, and will be 
guardod even in cool nights. Such an entrance may, in many cases, be found a 
great protection against the moth. 

* Old combs are much the most liable to suffer from the moth. In movable - 
comb hives, no combs need remain so long in the hive as to have their value 
seriously impaired. 

t Devices for burning the moth date back to the times of Columella, who 
recommends placing near the hives, at night, a brazen vessel, with a light burning in 
it, to destroy the moths resorting to it. 

% Report on Bees, tci tht Essex County Agricultural Society, 1851. 



252 THE HIYE AND HONEY-BEE. 

perpetuity; to be entitled to a never-fading wreath of 
budding honey flowers, from sweetly breathing fields, all 
murmuring with bees ; to be privileged to use, during his 
natural life, 'night tapers from their waxen thighs,' (best 
wax candles, two to the pound !) ; to have an annual 
offering, from every bee-master, of ten pounds each of 
very best virgin honey ; and to a body guard, for protec- 
tion against all foes, of thrice ten thousand workers, all 
armed and equipped as Nature's law directs. Who shall 
have these high honors ?" 

It seems almost incredible that such puny animals as 
mice should venture to invade a hive of bees ; and yet 
they often slip in when cold compels the bees to retreat 
from the entrance. Having once gained admission, they 
build a warni nest in their comfortable abode, eat up the 
honey and such bees as are too much chilled to offer re- 
sistance, and fill the premises with such a stench, that the 
bees, on the arrival of warm weather, often abandon 
their polluted home. On the approach of cold weather, 
the entrances of the hives should be so contracted that a 
mouse cannot get in.* 

That various kinds of birds are fond of bees, every 
Apiarian knows to his cost. The King-bird (Tyrannus 
musicapa), which devours them by scores, is said — when 
he can have a choice — to e'at only the drones; but as he 
catches bees on the blossoms — which are never frequented 
by these fat and lazy gentlemen — the industrious workers 
must often fall a prey to his fatal snap. There is good 
reason to suspect that this gourmand can distinguish 
between an empty bee in search of food, and one which, 
returning laden to its fragrant home, is in excellent condi- 
tion to glide — already sweetened — down his voracious maw. 

* If, as the weather grows cold, the bees are allowed to use only the upper 
entrance (p. 250), it will be almost impossible for mice to effect a lodgment 



ENEMIKS OF BEES. 253 

If — as in the olden time of fables — birds could be 
moved by human language, it would be worth while to 
post up, in the vicinity of our Apiaries, the old Greek 
poet's address to the swallow : 

u Attic maiden, honey fed, 

Chirping warbler, bears't away 
Thou the busy buzzing bee, 

To thy callow brood a prey ? 
Warbler, thou a warbler seize? 

Winged, one with lovely wings ? 
Guest thyself, by Summer brought, 

Yellow guests whom Summer brings ? 
Wilt not quickly let it drop ? 

'Tis not fair ; indeed, His wrong, 
That the ceaseless warbler should 

Die by mouth of ceaseless song." 

No Apiarian ought ever to encourage the destruction 
of birds, because of their fondness for his bees. Unless 
we can check the custom of destroying, on any pretence, 
our insectivorous birds, we shall soon, not only be de- 
prived of their serial melody among the leafy branches, 
but shall lament, more and more, the increase of insects, 
from whose ravages nothing but these birds can protect 
us. Let those who can enjoy no music made by these 
winged choristers of the skies, except that of their ago- 
nizing screams as they fall before their well-aimed 
weapons, and flutter out their innocent lives before their 
heartless gaze, drive away, as far as they please from 
their cruel premises, all the little birds that they cannot 
destroy, and they will, eventually, reap the fruits of their 
folly, when the caterpillars weave their destroying webs 
over their leafless trees, and insects of all kinds riot in 
glee on their blasted harvests.* 

* " The farmers of Europe having learned, by repeated observation, that, without 
th<* aid of mischievous birds, their work would be sacrificed to the more destructive 



254 THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 



i 



The toad is a well-known devourer of bees. Sitting, 
towards evening, under a hive, he will sweep into his 
mouth, with his swiftly-darting tongue, many a late 
returning bee, as it falls, heavily laden, to the ground ; 
but as he is also a diligent consumer of various injurious 
insects, he can plead equal immunity with the insective- 
rous birds. • 

It may seem amazing that birds and toads can swallow 
bees without being stung to death. They seldom, how- 
ever, meddle with any, except those returning fully laden 
to their hives, or such as, being away, from home, are in- 
disposed to resent an injury. As they are usually swal- 
lowed without being crushed, they do not instinctively 
thrust out their stings, and before they can recover from 
their surprise, they are safely entombed. 

Bears are excessively fond of honey ; and in countries 
where they abound, great precautions are needed to 
prevent them from destroying the hives. 

In that quaint but admirably common-sense work, 
entitled, " The Femenine Monarchies written out of 
Experience, by Charles Butler; printed in the year 
1609," we have an amusing adventure, related by a Mus- 
covite ambassador to Rome : 

44 A neighbor of mine, saith he, in searching in the 
woods for honey, slipped down into a great hollow tree, 
and there sunk into a lake of honey up to the breast; 
where — when he had stuck fast two days, calling and try- 
ing out in vain for help, because nobody in the meanwhile 
came nigh that solitary place — at length, when he was 

insect race, forgive the trespasses of such hirds, as we forgive those of cats and 
dogs. The respect shown to birds by any people, seems to bear a certain ratio to 
the antiquity of the nation. Hence, the sacredness with which they are regarded 
in Japan, where the population is so dense that the inhabitants would feel that they 
could ill afford to divide the produce of their fields with the birds, unless they 
were convinced of their usefulness.' 1 — Atlantic Monthly for 1859, p. 825 



DISEASES OF BEES. 255 

out of all hope of life, he was strangely delivered by the 
means of a great bear, which, coming thither about the 
same business that he did, and smelling the honey, stirred 
with his striving, clambered up to the top of the tree, and 
then began to lower himself down, backwards, into it 
The man bethinking himself, and knowing that the worst 
~was but death, which in that place he was sure of, beclipt 
the bear fast with both his hands about the loins, and, 
withal, made an outcry as loud as he could. The bear 
being thus suddenly affrighted, what with the handling 
and what with the noise, made up again with all speed 
possible. The man held, and the bear pulled, until, with 
main force, he had drawn him out of the mire ; and then, 
being let go, away he trots, more afeard than hurt / 
leaving the smeared swain in a joyful fear." 

Ants, in some places, are so destructive, that it becomes 
necessary to put the hives on stands, whose legs are set 
in water.* My limits forbid me to speak of wasps, 
hornets, millepedes (or wood-lice), spiders, and other 
enemies of bees. If the Apiarian keeps his stocks strong, 
they will usually be their own best protectors, and, unless 
they are guarded by thousands ready to die in their 
defence, they are ever liable to fall a prey to some of 
x their many enemies, who are all agreed on this one point, 
at least — that stolen honey is much sweeter than the 
slow accumulations of patient industry. 

DISEASES OF BEES. 

Bees are subject to but few diseases which deserve 
special notice. The fatal effects of dysentery have already 
been alluded to (p. 90). "The presence of this disorder," 
says Bevan, " is indicated by the appearance of the excre- 

* Small ants often make their nerts about hives, to have the benefit of their 
warmth, and neither molest the ber« nor are molested by them. 



256 THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 

ment, which, instead of a reddish yellow, exhibits a 
muddy black color, and has an intolerably offensive smell. 
Also, by its being voided upon the floors and at the 
entrance of the hives, which bees, in a healthy state, are 
particularly careful to keep clean."* 

Various opinions have prevailed as to the causes of this 
disease. All Apiarians are agreed that dampness in the 
hives, especially if the bees are long confined, is sure to 
produce it. Feeding bees late in the Fall on liquid honey— 
which they have not time to seal over, and which sours 
by attracting moisture — should be avoided ; also, all unne- 
cessary disturbance of colonies in the Winter, which, by 
exciting them, causes an excessive consumption of food. 
Populous stocks, well stored with honey, in hives so venti- 
lated as to keep the combs dry, will seldom suffer severely 
from this disease. 

The disease called by the Germans "foul brood," is of 
all others the most fatal (p. 19) to bees. The sealed 
brood die in the cells, and the stench from their decaying 
bodies seems to paralyze the bees.f 

There are two species of foul-brood, one of which the 
Germans call the dry, and the other, the moist or foetid. 
The dry appears to be only partial in its effects, and not 
contagious, the brood simply dying and drying up in cer- 

* I have discovered a kind of dysentery which confines its ravages to a few bees 
in a colony. Those attacked are at first excessively irritable, and sting without 
any provocation. In the latter stages of this complaint, they may often be seen on 
the ground, stupid and unable to fly, their abdomens unnaturally distended with an 
offensive yellow matter. I can assign neither cause nor cure for this disease. 

t Dzierzon thinks that this disease was produced in his Apiary by feeding bees 
on " American honey" (honey from the West India Islands). As this honey docs 
not ordinarily produce it, he probably used some taken from colonies having the 
disease. Such honey is always infectious. 

Mr. Quinby informs me that he has lost as many as 100 colonies in a year from 
this pestilence. It has never made its appearance in my Apiaries, and I should 
regard its general dissemination through our country as the greatest possible 
calamity to bee-keeping. 



DISEASES OF BEES. 257 

tain parts of the combs. In the moist, the brood, instead 
of drying up, decays, and produces a noisome stench, 
which may be perceived at some distance from the 
hive.* 

In the Spring or Summer, when the weather is fine 
and pasturage abounds, the following cure for foul-brood 
is recommended by a German Apiarian : — " Drive out 
he bees into any clean hive, and shut them up in a dark 
place without food for twenty-four hours; prepare for 
them a clean hive, properly fitted up with comb from 
healthy colonies, transfer the bees into it, and confine 
them two days longer, feeding them with pure honey." 

My readers are indebted to Mr. Samuel Wagner for 
a translation of Dzierzon's mode of treating foul-brood : 

u I admit that I can furnish no prescriptions by which a 
diseased colony may be forthwith cured. Nay, I consider 
it highly improbable that a colony, in which the disease 
has made marked progress, can be cured by any medica- 
ments. The removal of the putrid and infectious matter, 
already so abundant in the cells, must at least be simul- 
taneously effected— and this seems to be altogether 
impracticable. Nevertheless, there would be much gained 
if we could neutralize or destroy the virus in the bees 
themselves, and also render the infected honey harmless. 
A bee-keeping friend recently informed me that, if such 
honey be somewhat diluted with water, and then well 
boiled and skimmed, it may be safely used in feeding bees. 
Suspected honey should invariably be boiled and skimmed 
before it is fed tc bees. For the hive itself, chloride of 
lime might prove an efficient disinfectant. I simply let 
the hives, which contained diseased colonies, stand exposed 

* As Aristotle (History of Animals, Book IX., Chap. 40) speaks of a disease 
which is accompanied by a disgusting smell of the hive, there is reason to believe 
that foul-brood was common more than twc thousand years ago. 



w 258 THE HIVE AND HONEYBEE. 

to sun and air for two seasons, and stock them thereafter 
without experiencing a return of the malady. 

" On the whole, the disease has now lost its terrors for 
me. Though my bees may re-introduce it from neighbor- 
ing Apiaries or other foreign sources, I no longer appre- 
hend that it will suddenly break out in a number of my 
colonies, or spread rapidly in any of my Apiaries, because 
I shall hereafter avoid feeding foreign or imported honey, 
even if, in an unfavorable year, it should become neces- 
sary to reduce the number of my stocks to one-half or 
one-fourth of the usual complement. 

" But when the malady makes its appearance in onl 
two or three of the colonies, and is discovered earl 
(which may readily be done in hives having movable- 
combs), it can be arrested and cured without damage 
or diminution of profit. To prevent the disease from 
spreading in a colony, there is no more reliable and effi- 
cient process than to stop the production op brood, 
for where no brood exists, none can perish and putrefy. 
The disease is thus deprived both of its aliment and its 
subjects. The healthy brood will mature and emerge in 
due time, and the putrid matter remaining in a few cells 
will dry up and be removed by the workers. All this 
will certainly result from a well-timed removal of the 
queen from such colonies. If such removal becomes 
necessary in the Spring or early part of Summer, a super- 
numerary queen is thereby obtained, by means of which 
an artificial colony may be started, which will certainly 
be healthy if the bees and brood used, be taken from 
healthy colonies Should the removal be made in the 
latter part of Summer, the useless production of brood 
will at once be stopped, and an unnecessary consumption 
of honey prevented. Thus, in either case, we are gainers 
by the operati m. If we have a larger number of colonies 



>r 

i 



DISEASES OF BEES. 259 

than it is desired to winter, it is judicious to take the 
honey from the colonies deprived of their queens, imme- 
diately after all the brood has emerged, as they usually 
contain the greatest quantity of stores at that time. If 
the disease be not malignant foul-brood, the colony may 
be allowed to remain undisturbed after it has bred a new 
queen, and, in most instances, such colonies will subse- 
quently be found free from disease. I have, indeed, ascer- 
tained the singular fact that, if both bees and combs be 
removed from an infected hive, and healthy bees and pure 
comb be placed therein, these will speedily be infected 
with foul-brood ; whereas, when the queen of an incipiently 
infected colony is removed, or simply confined in a cage, 
and the workers are still sufficiently numerous to remove 
all impurities, the colony will speedily be restored to a 
healthy condition. It thus seems as though the bees can 
become accustomed to the virus which usually adheres so 
pertinaciously to the hive. 

" Foul-brood, indeed, is a disease exclusively of the 
larvae, and not of the emerged bees, or of brood suffi- 
ciently advanced to be nearly ready to emerge. Hence, 
the cause of the disease may exist already in the food 
provided for the larvae, and have its seat in the chyle- 
stomach of the nursing bees, though these latter may not 
themselves be injuriously affected thereby. 

" Though the colonies treated in this manner generally 
appear to be free from infection during the ensuing 
season, and the brood proceeding from the eggs of a 
queen subsequently given to them, or from those of one 
reared by themselves, is healthy, maturing and emerging 
m due time, still, the disease, in most instances, re-appears 
in the following Summer. It is, indeed, possible that the 
bees may have re-introduced it from foreign sources, but 
it is not unlikely, also, that the infectious matter really 



260 THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 

remained latent in the hive. The bees do not usually 
remove all the putrid matter from the cells, but let some 
portions remain in the corners after it has become dry, 
merely covering it with a film of wax or propolis, through 
which, subsequently, when circumstances favor its action, 
the virus may exert a malignant influence and cause a 
revival of the disease. Hence, when I do not break up 
such colonies altogether in Autumn, and transfer the bees 
to new hives or other colonies with pure combs, I 
invariably regard them with suspicion, as unreliable, 
and keep them under strict surveillance at least a year 
longer. 

" I also use these suspected colonies, by preference, for 
the production of queens with which to supply queenless 
colonies or start artificial swarms — successively removing 
from them the young queens as soon as they prove to be 
fertile or I have occasion to use them. In this way, I 
make such a colony furnish three or four — nay, sometimes, 
by inserting sealed royal cells, even five or six young 
queens. But, in such operations, I invariably take the 
bees and brood for the artificial swarms, from colonies 
which are unquestionably free from the disease. For this 
purpose, I select strong colonies having young and 
vigorous queens, and which are consequently able to 
furnish the required supplies without any serious diminu- 
tion of population, when the season is at all favorable to 
the multiplication of stocks. In such seasons, strong 
colonies, in good condition, with a vigorous queen in the 
prime of life, can easily supply brood and bees sufficient 
for four swarms." — Bienenzeitung^ 1857, No. 4. 




ROBBING. 261 



CHAPTER XIII 

ROBBING, AND HOW PREVENTED. 

Bees are so prone to rob each other, that, unless 
great precautions are used, the Apiarian will often lose 
some of his most promising stocks. Idleness is with 
them, as with men, a fruitful mother of mischief. They 
are, however, far more excusable than the lazy rogues of 
the human family ; for they seldom attempt to live on 
stolen sweets when they can procure a sufficiency by 
honest industry. 

As soon as they can leave their hives in the Spring, if 
urged by the dread of famine, they begin to assail the 
weaker stocks. In this matter, however, the morals of 
our little friends seem to be sadly at fault ; for, often those 
stocks which have the largest surplus are — like some rich 
oppressors — the most anxious to prey upon the meagre 
possessions of others. 

If the marauders, who are ever prowling about in 
search of plunder, attack a strong and healthy colony, 
they are usually glad to escape with their lives from its 
resolute defenders. The bee-keeper, therefore, who ne- 
glects to feed his needy colonies, and to assist such as 
are weak or queenless (p. 221), must count upon suffer- 
ing heavy losses from robber-bees. 

It is sometimes difficult for the novice to discriminate 
between the honest inhabitants of a hive, and the robbers 
which often mingle with them. There is, however, an air 
of roguery about a thieving bee which, to the expert, is 
as characteristic as are the motions of a pickpocket to a 



262 THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 

skillful policeman. Its sneaking look, and nervous, guilty 
agitation, once seen, can never be mistaken. It does 
not, like the laborer carrying home the fruits of honest 
toil, alight boldly upon the entrance-board, or face the 
guards, knowing well that, if caught by these trusty 
guardians, its life would hardly be worth insuring. If it 
can glide by without touching any of the sentinels, those 
within — taking for granted that all is right — usually per- 
mit it to help itself. 

Bees which lose their way, and alight upon a strange 
hive, can be readily distinguished from these thieving 
scamps. The rogue, when caught, strives to pull away 
from his executioners, while the bewildered unfortunate 
shrinks into the smallest compass, submitting to any fate 
his captors may award. 

These dishonest bees are the " Jerry Sneaks" of their 
profession, and, after following it for a time, lose all taste 
for honest pursuits. Constantly creeping through small 
holes, and daubing themselves with honey, their plumes 
assume a smooth and almost black* appearance, just as 
the hat and garments of a thievish loafer acquire a 
"seedy" aspect. " Honesty is as good policy" among 
bees as among men, and, if the pilfering bee only knew 
its true interests, it would be safely laboring amid the 
smiling fields, instead of risking its life for a taste of for- 
bidden sweets. 

It is said that bees occasionally act the part of highway 
robbers, by waylaying a humble-bee as it returns to its 
nest with a well-stored sac. Seizing the honest fellow, 
they give him to understand that they want his honey. 
If they killed him, they would never be able to extract 

* Dzierzon thinks that these black bees, which Huber has described as so bitterly 
persecuted by the rest, are nothing more than thieves. Aristotle speaks of u a 
black bee which is called a thief? 



ROBBING. 263 

is spoils from their deep recesses ; they, therefore, bite 
and tease him, after their most approved fashion, all the 
time singing in his ears, " Your honey or your life," until 
he empties his capacious receptacle, when they release 
him and lick up his sweets. 

Bees sometimes a carry on their depredations upon a 
more imposing scale. Having ascertained the weakness 
of some neighboring colony, they sally out by thousands, 
eager to engage in a pitched battle. A furious onset is 
made, and the ground in front of the assaulted hive is 
soon covered with the bodies of innumerable victims. 
Sometimes the baffled invaders are compelled to sound a 
retreat; too often, however, as in human contests — right 
proving but a feeble barrier against superior might — the 
citadel is stormed, and the work of rapine forthwith 
begins. And yet, after all, matters are not so bad as 
at first they seemed to be, for often the conquered bees, 
giving up the unequal struggle, assist the victors in plunder- 
ing their own hive, and are rewarded by being incorpo- 
rated into the triumphant nation. The poor mother, 
however, remains -in her pillaged hive, some few of her 
children — faithful to the last — staying with her to perish 
by her side amid the ruins of their once happy home.* 

If the bee-keeper would not have his bees so demoral- 
ized that their value will be seriously diminished, he will 
be exceedingly careful (p. 199) to prevent them from 
robbing each other. If the bees of a strong stock once 
get a taste of forbidden sweets, they will seldom stop 

* " Bees, like men, have their different dispositions, so that even their loyalty 
will sometimes fail them. An instance not long ago came to our knowledge, which 
probably few bee-keepers will credit. It is that of a hive which, having early 
exhausted its store, was found, on being examined one morning, to be utterly 
deserted. The comb was empty, and the only symptom of life was the poor queen 
\ersel£ ' unfriended, melancholy, slow,' crawling over the honeyless cells, a sad 
spectacle of the fall of bee-greatness. Marius among the ruins of Carthage — Napo- 
leon at Fontainebleau — was nothing to this."— London Quarterly Review, 



264 THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 

until they have tested the strength of every hive. Even 
if all the colonies are able to defend themselves, many 
bees will be lost in these encounters, and much time 
wasted ; for bees, whether engaged in robbing, or battling 
against the robbery of others, lose both the disposition 
and the ability to engage in useful labors.* 

By keeping the movable entrance-blocks of my hives 
very close together, when a colony is feeble, if thieves try 
to slip in, they are almost sure to be overhauled and put 
to death ; and if robbers are bold enough to attempt to 
force an entrance, as the bottom-board slants forward, 
it gives the occupants of the hive a decided advantage. 
If any succeed in entering, they find hundreds standing 
in battle-array, and fare as badly as a forlorn hope that 
has stormed the walls of a beleaguered fortress, only to 
perish among thousands of enraged enemies. 

By putting these blocks before the entrance of a hive 
which has ceased to offer any effectual resistance, the 
dispirited colony will often recover heart, and drive off 
their assailants. 

When bees are actively engaged in robbing, they sally 
out with the first peep of light, and often continue their 
depredations until it is so late that they cannot find the 
entrance to their hive. When robbing has become a 
habit, they are sometimes so infatuated with it as to 
neglect their own brood ! 

The cloud of robbers arriving and departing need 

* If the Apiarian would guard his bees against dishonest courses, he must be 
exceedingly careful, in his various operations, not to leave any combs where 
strange bees can find them (see note, p. 172) ; for, after once getting a taste of 
. stolen honey, they will hover round him as soon as they see him operating on a 
hive, all ready to pounce upon it and snatch what they can of its exposed 
treasures. 

Some bee-keepers question whether a bee that once learns to steal ever returns 
to honest courses. I have known the value of an Apiary to be so seriously im- 
paired by the bees beginning early in the season to rob each other, that the owner 
was often tempted to wish that he had never seen a bee. 



Fig. 55. 



Pxate XVIII. 




ROBBING. 265 

never be mistaken for honest laborers carrying, with un- 
wieldy flight, their heavy burdens to the hive. These 
bold plunderers, as they enter a hive, are almost as 
hungry-looking as Pharaoh's lean kine, while, on coming 
out, they show by their burly looks that, like aldermen 
who have dined at the expense of the city, they are stuffed 
to their utmost capacity. 

When robbing-bees have fairly overcome a colony, the 
attempt to stop them — by shutting up the hive or by 
moving it to a new stand — if improperly conducted, is 
often far more disastrous than to allow them to finish their 
work. The air will be quickly filled with greedy bees, 
who, unable to bear their disappointment, will assail, with 
almost frantic desperation, some of the adjoining stocks. 
In this way, the strongest colonies are sometimes over- 
powered, or thousands of bees slain in the desperate 
contest. 

When an Apiarian perceives that a colony is being 
robbed, he should contract the entrance, and, if the 
assailants persist in forcing their way in, he must close it 
entirely. In a few minutes the hive will be black with 
the greedy cormorants, who will not abandon it till 
they have attempted to squeeze themselves through the 
smallest openings. Before they assail a neighboring 
colony, they should be thoroughly sprinkled with cold 
water, which will make them glad to return to their 
homes. 

Unless the bees that were shut up can have an abund- 
ance of air, they should be carried to a cool and dark* 

* ** In Germany, when colonies in common hives are being robbed, they are often 
removed to a distant location, or put in a dark cellar. A hive, similar in appear- 
ance, is placed on their stand, and leaves of wormwood and the expressed juice of 
the plant are put on the bottom-board. Bees have such an antipathy to the 
odoT of this plant, that the robbers speedily forsake the place, and the assailed 
colony may then be brought back. 

" The Rev. Mr. Kleine ssyp, that robbers may be repelled by iunpartins: to the 

12 



266 THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 

place. Early the next morning they may be examined,* 
and, if necessary, united to another stock. 

There is a kind of pillage which is carried on so secretly 
as often to escape all notice. The bees engaged in it do 
not enter in large numbers, no fighting is visible, and the 
labors of the hive appear to be progressing with their 
usual quietness. All the while, however, strange bees are 
carrying off the honey as fast as it is gathered. After 
watching such a colony for some days, it occurred to me, 
one evening, as it had an unhatched queen, to give it a 
fertile one. On the next morning, rising before the 
rogues were up, I had the pleasure of seeing them meet 
with such a warm reception, that they were glad to make 
a speedy retreat. 

May not the fertile mother give to each hive (p. 203) 
its distinguishing scent ? And may not a hive without 
such a queen be so pleased (p. 226) with the odor of other 
bees, as to let them do what they will with its stores ? 
As bees are seldom engaged in raising young queens, 
except in the swarming season, when honey is so plenty 
that they are not inclined to rob, this may, if my conjec- 
tures are correct, account for the scarcity of this kind of 
pillage. 

hive some intensely powerful and unaccustomed odor. He effects this the most 
readily by placing in it, in the evening, a small portion of musk, and on the follow- 
ing morning the bees, if they have a healthy queen, will boldly meet their 
assailants. These are nonplussed by the unwonted odor, and, if any of them 
enter the hive and carry off some of the coveted booty, on their return home, 
having a strange smell, they will be killed by their own household. The robbing 
is thus soon brought to a close." — S. Wagner. 

* It will usually be found that a stock which is overpowered by robbers has no 
queen, or one that is diseased (p. 244, note). 



FEEDING. 267 



CHAPTER XIV. 

DIRECTIONS FOR FEEDING BEES. 

Few things in practical bee-keeping are more important 
than the feeding of bees ; yet none have been more 
grossly mismanaged or neglected. Since the sulphur-pit 
has been discarded, thousands of feeble colonies starve in 
the Winter, or early Spring ; while often, when an unfa- 
vorable Summer is followed by a severe Winter and late 
Spring, many persons lose most of their stocks, and 
abandon bee-keeping in disgust. 

In the Spring, the prudent bee-keeper will no more 
neglect to feed his destitute colonies, than to provide for 
his own table. At this season, being stimulated by the 
returning warmth, and being largely engaged in breed- 
ing, bees require a liberal supply of food, and many 
populous stocks perish, which might have been saved with 
but trifling trouble or expense.* 

11 If e'er dark Autumn, with untimely storm, 
The honey'd harvest of the year deform ; 
Or the chill blast from Eurus' mildew wing, 
Blight the fair promise of returning Spring ; 
Full many a hive, but late alert and gay, 
Droops in the lap of all-inspiring May." — Evans. 

* " If the Spring is not favorable to bees, they should be fed, because that is the 
season of their greatest expense in honey, for feeding their young. Having plenty 
at that time, enables them to yield early and strong swarms.' 1 — Wildman. 

A bee-keener, whose stocks are allowed to perish after the Spring has opened, is 
on a level with a farmer whose cattle are allowed to starve in their stalls ; while 
those who withhold from them the needed aid, in seasons when they cannot gather 
a supply, resemble the merchant who burns up his ships, if they have made an 
unfavorable voyage. 

Columella gives minute instructions for feeding: needy stocks, and r, dotes approv- 



2G8 THE HIVE A^D HONEY-JBi^:. 

When bees first begin to fly in the Spring, it is well to 
feed them a little, even when they have abundant stores, 
as a small addition to their hoards • encourages the pro- 
duction of brood. Great caution, however, should be 
used to prevent robbing, and as soon as forage abounds, 
the feeding should be discontinued. If a colony is over- 
fed, the bees will fill their brood-combs, so as to inter- 
fere with the production of young, and thus the honey 
given to them is worse than thrown away. 

The over-feeding of bees resembles, in its results, the 
noxious influences under which too many children of the 
rich are reared. Pampered and fed to the full, how often 
does their wealth prove only a legacy of withering 
curses, as, bankrupt in purse and character, they prema- 
turely sink to dishonored graves. 

The prudent Apiarian will regard the feeding of bees 
—the little given by way of encouragement excepted — 
as an evil to be submitted to only when it cannot be 
avoided, and will much prefer that they should obtain 
their supplies in the manner so beautifully described by 
him whose inimitable writings furnish us, on almost every 
subject, with the happiest illustrations : 

u So work the honey bees, 
Creatures that, by 3, rule in Nature, teach 
The art of order to a peopled kingdom. 
They have a king and officers of sorts, 
Where some, like magistrates, correct at home , 
Others, like merchants, venture trade abroad ; 
Others, like soldiers, armed in their stings, 
Make boot upon the Summer's velvet buds ; 
Which pillage they, with merry march, bring home 
To the tent royal of their emperor, • 

Who, busied in his majesty, surveys 

tngly the directions of Hyginus — whose writings are no longer extant— that thit 
matter should be most carefully {" diligentixsime'" 1 ) attended to. 



FEEDING. 269 

The singing masons building roofs of gold ; 
The civil citizens kneading up the honey ; 
The poor mechanic porters crowding in 
Their heavy burdens at his narrow gate ; 
The sad-eyed justice, with his surly hum, 
Delivering o'er, to executors pale, 
The lazy, yawning drone." 

Shakspeare's Henry V., Act /., Scene 2. 

Impoverished stocks, if in common hives, may be fed 
by inverting the hives and pouring a teacupfull of 
honey among the combs in which the bees are clustered. 
A bee deluged by sweets, when away from home, is a 
sorry spectacle ; but w T hat is thus given them does no 
harm, and they will lick each other clean, with as much 
satisfaction as a little child sucks its fingers while feasting 
on sugar candy. When the bees have taken up what has 
been poured upon them, the hive may be replaced, and 
the operation repeated, at intervals, as often as is needed. 
If the stock is in a movable-comb hive, the food may be 
put into an empty comb, and placed where it can be 
easily reached by the bees. 

If a colony has too few bees, its population must be 
replenished (p. 221) before it is fed. If it has but a 
small quantity of brood-combs, unless fed very moder- 
ately, it will fill the cells with honey instead of brood. 
If the Apiarian wishes the bees to build new comb, the 
food must be given so regularly as to resemble natural 
supplies, or they will store it in the cells already built. 

To build up small colonies by feeding, requires more 
care and judgment than any other process in bee-culture, 
and will rarely be required by those who have movable- 
comb hives. It can only succeed when everything is 
made subservient to the most rapid production of brood. 

By the time the honey-harvest closes, all the colonies 
ought to be strong in numbers ; and, in favorable sea- 



270 THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 

sons, their aggregate resources should be such that, when 
an equal division is made, there will be enough food for 
all. If some have more and others less than they need, 
an equitable division may usually be effected in movable- 
comb hives. Such an agrarian procedure would soon 
overthrow human society ; but bees thus helped, will not 
spend the next season in idleness ; nor will those which 
were deprived of their surplus, limit their gatherings to a 
bare competency. 

Early in October — in northern latitudes, by the mid- 
dle of September — if forage is over, all feeding required 
for wintering bees should be carefully attended to. If 
delayed to a later period, the bees may not have sufficient 
time to seal over their honey, which, by attracting moist- 
ure and souring, may expose them (p. 256) to dysentery. 
Such colonies as have too few bees to winter well, should 
be added to other stocks. 

West India honey is, ordinarily, the cheapest liquid 
bee-food. To remove its impurities, and prevent it from 
souring or candying in the cells, it should have a little 
water added to it, and, after boiling a few minutes, should 
be set to cool ; the scum on the top should then be 
removed. A mixture of three lbs. of honey, two of brown 
sugar, and one of water, prepared as above, has been 
used by me (p. 257) for many years, without injury to 
my bees. 

It is desirable to get through with feeding as rapidly 
as possible,* as the bees are so excited by it, that they 
consume more food than they otherwise would. In my 
hives, the feeder may be put over one of the holes of the 
honey-board, into which the heat ascends. The bees can 
then get their food without being chilled in cold weather, 

* Feeding stocks, driven late in the Fall into empty hives, unless combs (p. Tl) 
can be given to them, will seldom pay expenses. 



FEEDING. 271 

and its smell ^ Aot so likely to attract robber bees. To 
make a cheap and convenient feeder (see Plate XL, Fig. 
26), take any wooden box holding at least two quarts; 
about two inches from one end put a thin partition, com- 
ing within half an inch of the top ; cut a hole in the 
bottom of the small apartment, so that when the feeder 
is put over any hole, the bees can pass into it and get 
access to the division holding the food. The joints of the 
feeding apartment should be made honey-tight, by running 
into the corners a mixture (p. 78) of wax and rosin ; and 
if the sides are washed with the same hot mixture, the 
wood, absorbing no honey, will keep sweet. The lid 
should have a piece of glass, to show when the feeder 
needs replenishing, and a hole, for pouring in the food, 
made and closed like those admitting the bees to the 
spare honey receptacles. Some clean straw, cut short 
enough to sink readily, as the bees consume the honey, 
will prevent them from being drowned.* 

Water is indispensable to bees when building comb or 
raising brood. They take advantage of any warm Win- 
ter day (see Chapter on Wintering Bees) to bring it to 
their hives ; and, in early Spring, may be seen busily 
drinking around pumps, drains, and other moist places. 
Later in the season, they sip the dew from the grass and 
leaves. 

Every careful bee-keeper will see that his bees are well 
supplied with water. f If he has not some sunny spot 
where they can safely obtain it, he will furnish them with 

* If such a box is covered thickly with cotton or wool, so as to retain the 
ascending heat, it may be used all Winter as a honey or water-feeder. 

Columella recommends wool, soaked in honey, for feeding bees. When the 
weather is not too cold, a saucer, bowl, or vessel of any kind, filled with straw, will 
make a convenient feeder. 

t An old Grecian bee-keeper says, " that if the weather is such that the bees 
are prevented from flying, for only a few days, the brood will perish from want of 
water." 



272 THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 

shallow wooden troughs, or vessels filled with floats or 
straw, from which — sheltered from cold winds, and 
warmed by the genial rays of the sun — they can drink 
without risk of drowning. 

Bees seem to be so fond of salt, that they will alight 
upon our hands to lick up the saline perspiration. 
" During the early part of the breeding season," says Dr. 
Bevan, "till the beginning of May, I keep a constant 
supply of salt and water near my Apiary, and find it 
thronged with bees from early morn till late in the 
evening. About this period, the quantity they consume 
is considerable, but afterwards they seem indifferent to it. 
The eagerness they evince for it at one period of the 
season, and their indifference at another, may account for 
the opposite opinions entertained respecting it." 

The Rev. Mr. Weigel, of Silesia, recommends plain 
sugar-candy as a substitute for liquid honey. If bees can 
get access to it, without being chilled, they will cluster 
on it, and, when supplied with water, will gradually eat it 
up. Four pounds of candy* will, it is said, sustain a colony 
having scarcely any winter stores. It is cheaper than 
liquid food, and less liable to sour in the cells. 

If the common hives are inverted, and sticks of candy 
placed gently between the combs where the bees are 
clustered, they may be easily fed in the coldest weather. 
In my hives, if the spare honey-board, or cover, is elevated 
on strips of wood, about an inch and a half above the 
frames, and the candy laid on them just above the clus- 
tered bees, it will be accessible to them in the coldest 

* To make candy for bee-feed : add water to the sugar, and clarify the syrup 
with eggs; put about a teaspoonful of cream of tartar to about 20 lbs. of sugar, 
and boil until the water is evaporated. To know when it is done, dip your finger 
first into cold water and then into the syrup. If what adheres is brittle when 
chewed, it is boiled enough. Pour it into shallow pans, slightly greased, and, when 
cold, break it into pieces of a suitable size. After boiling, balm, or any other 
flavor agreeable to bees, may be put into the syrup. 



FEEDING. 273 

weather. It may also be gently put between the combs, 
in an upright position, among the bees.* 

Mr. Wagner has furnished me with the following 
interesting facts, translated by him from the JBienen- 
zeitung : 

"'The use of sugar-candy for feeding bees, 7 says the Rev, Mr. 
Kleine. L gives to bee-keeping a security which it did not possess 
before. Still, we must not base over-sanguine calculations on it, 
>r attempt to winter very weak stocks, which a prudent Apiarian 
would at once unite with a stronger colony. I have used sugar- 
candy for feeding, for the last five years, and made many experi- 
ments with it, which satisfy me that it cannot be too strongly 
recommended, especially after unfavorable Summers. Colonies 
well furnished with comb, and having plenty of pollen, though 
deficient in honey, may be very profitably fed with candy, and 
will richly repay ihe service thus rendered them. 

:i ' Sugar-candy, dissolved in a small quantity of water, may be 
safely fed to bees late in the Fall, and even in Winter, if abso- 
lutely necessary. It is prepared by dissolving two pounds of 
candy in a quart of water, and evaporating, by boiling, about 
two gills of the solution j then skimming and straining through a 
hair sieve. Three quarts of this solution, fed in Autumn, will 
carry a colony safely through the Winter, in an ordinary location 
and season. The bees will carry it up into the cells of such 
combs as they prefer, where it speedily thickens and becomes 
covered with a thin film, which keeps it from souring. 

" ( Grape-sugar, for correcting sour wines, is now extensively 
made from potato-starch, in various places on the Rhine, and has 
been highly recommended for bee-food. It can be obtained at a 
much lower price than cane-sugar, and is better adapted to the 
constitution of the bee, as it constitutes the saccharine matter of 
honey, and hence, is frequently termed honey-sugar. 

u ' It may be fed either diluted with boiling-water, or in its raw 

* By sliding a few sticks of candy under their frames, a small colony may be fed 
in warm weather, without tempting robbers by the smell of liquid honey. If a 
small quantity of liquid food is needed in Summer, loaf sugar dissolved in water, 
having little smell, is the best. 

12* 



274 THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 

state, moist, as it comes from the factory. In the latter condition^ 
bees consume it slowly, and, as there is not the waste that occurs 
when candy is fed, I think it is better winter-food. 7 

l ' The Rev. Mr. Sholz, of Silesia, recommends the following as 
a substitute for sugar-candy in feeding bees : 

" ' Take one pint of honey and four pounds of pounded lump- 
sugar 5 heat the honey, without adding water, and mix it with 
the sugar, working it together to a stiff doughy mass. When thus 
thoroughly incorporated, cut it into slices, or form it into cakes or 
lumps, and wrap them in a piece of coarse, linen and place them 
in the frames. Thin slices, enclosed in linen, may be pushed 
down between the combs. The plasticity of the mass enables 
the Apiarian to apply the food in any manner he may desire. 
The bees have less difficulty in appropriating this kind of food 
than where candy is used, and there is no waste.' 

" Mr. Kleine grates^ candy, for a winter bee-food, into cells 
previously dampened with sweetened water." 

It is impossible to say how much honey will be needed 
to carry a colony safely through the Winter. Much will 
depend (see Chapter on Wintering Bees) on the way in 
which they are wintered, whether in the open air or in 
special depositaries, where they are protected against the 
undue excitement caused by sudden and severe atmos- 
pheric changes; much, also, on the length of the Winters, 
which vary so much in different latitudes, and the for- 
wardness of the ensuing Spring. In some of our Northern 
States, bees will often gather nothing for more than six 
months, while, in the extreme South, they are seldom 
deprived of all natural supplies for as many weeks. In 
all our Northern and Middle States, if the stocks are to 

* Granulated loaf-sugar would probably make a good bee-feed, and, by wetting 
the combs after it has been sifted into them, it might easily be made to stay in the 
cells. Neither sugar nor candy can be used by bees unless they have water to dis- 
solve them. 

I have seen bees flock by thousands around the mills where the Chinese sugar- 
cane (Sorghum) was being ground. The value, as a bee-food, of the raw juice and 
the syrup should be carefully tested. 



FEEDING. 275 

be wintered out of doors, they should have at least 
twenty-five pounds* of honey. 

All attempts to derive profit from selling cheap honey 
fed to bees, have invariably proved unsuccessful. The 
notion that they can change all sweets, however poor their 
quality, into good honey, \ on the same principle that cows 
secrete milk from any acceptable food, is a complete 
delusion. 

It is true that they can make white comb from almost 
every liquid sweet, because wax being a natural secretion 
of the bee, can be made from all saccharine substances, 
as fat can be put upon the ribs of an ox by any kind of 
nourishing food. But the quality of the comb has nothing 
to do with its contents ; and the attempt to sell, as a prime 
article, inferior honey, stored in beautiful comb, is as truly 
a fraud as to offer for good money, coins which, although 
pure on the outside, contain a baser metal within. 

The quality of honey depends very little, if any, upon 
the secretions of the bees ; and hence, apple-blossom, white 
clover, buckwheat, and most other varieties of honey, 
have each its peculiar flavor. J 

* In movable-comb hives, the amount of stores may be easily ascertained by 
actual inspection. The weight of hives is not always a safe criterion, as old combs 
are heavier than new ones, besides being often over-stored (p. 82) with bee- 
bread. 

t When the bees are rapidly storing their combs, they disgorge the contents of their 
honey-sacs as soon as they return from the fields. That the honey undergoes no 
change during the short time it remains in their sacs cannot positively be affirmed, 
but that it can undergo only a very slight change is evident from the fact that the 
different kinds of honey or sugar-syrup fed to the bees can be almost as readily dis- 
tinguished, after they have sealed them up, as before. 

The Golden Age of bee-keeping, in which bees are to transmute inferior sweets 
into such balmy spoils as were gathered on Hybla or Hymettus, is as far from prosaic 
reality as the visions of the poet, who saw — 

" A golden hive, on a golden bank, 
Where golden bees, by alchemical prank, 
G-ather gold instead of honey. 1 ' 

% " That bees gather honey, but do not secrete it, is argued from the fact that 
bee-keepers find pells filled with honey (in new swarms) on the first or second day.' ' 
—AHstotle. 



276 THE HIVE AND HONEY-DEE. 

The evaporation* of its watery particles is the only well 
marked change that honey appears to undergo from its 
natural state in the nectaries of the blossoms, and bees 
are very unwilling to seal it over until it has been brought 
to such a consistency that it is in no danger of becoming 
acid in the cells.f 

Even if cheap honey could be "made over " by the 
bees so as to be of the best quality, it would cost the pro- 
ducer, taking into account the amount consumed (p. 71) 
in elaborating wax, almost, if not quite, as much as the 
market price of white clover honey ; and, if he feeds his 
bees after the natural supplies are over, they will suffer 
from filling up their brood cells. J 

The experienced Apiarian will fully appreciate the 

* If a strong colony is put on a platform scale, it will be found, during the height 
of the honey harvest, to gain a number of pounds on a pleasant day. Much of this 
weight, however, will be lost in the night from the evaporation of the newly • 
gathered honey, the water from which often runs in a stream from the bottom - 
board. The Rev. Levi Wheaton, of North Falmouth, Mass., is of opinion that ven 
tilation will greatly aid the bees in evaporating the water from their unsealed 
honey. The thorough upward ventilation which I now give to my hives may, 
therefore, contribute to increase the yield of honey. 

+ Aristotle notices this fact, which I once thought a discovery of my own. The 
remarks of this wonderful genius on the generation of bees show that he appre- 
ciated the difficulties which, until of late, have so much perplexed modern 
Apiarians. After discussing this topic, he says: "All pertaining to this subject 
has not yet been sufficiently ascertained; but, if it ever should be, then we must 
place more confidence in our observations than in our reasonings. Theory, how- 
ever, as far as it conforms to facts observed, is worthy of credit." Have we not 
here the inductive system as well guarded and as well expressed as ever it was by 
Bacon ? 

% The following is my recipe for a beautiful Uqivid honey, which the best judges 
have pronounced one of the most luscious articles they ever tasted : Put two 
pounds of the purest white sugar in as much hot water as will dissolve it ; take 
one pound of strained white clover honey — any honey of good flavor will answer — 
and add it warm to the syrup, thoroughly stirring them together. As refined loaf 
sugar is a pure and inodorous sweet, one pound of honey will give its flavor to two 
pounds of sugar, and the compound will be free from that smarting taste which 
pure honey often has, and will usually agree with those who cannot eat the latter 
with impunity. Any desired flavor may be added to it. 

Although no profit can be realized from inducing bees to store this mixture in 
boxes or glasses, the amateur may choose, in bad seasons, or in districts where the 
noney is poor, to secure in this way choice specimens for his table 



FEEDING. 277 

necessity of preventing his bees getting a taste of for- 
bidden sweets, and the inexperienced, if incautious, will 
?oon learn a salutary lesson. Bees were intended to 
gather their supplies from the nectaries of flowers, and, 
while following their natural instincts, have little disposi- 
tion to meddle with property that does not belong to 
them ; but, if their incautious owner tempts them with 
liquid food, especially at times when they can obtain no- 
thing from the blossoms, they become so infatuated with 
such easy gatherings as to lose all discretion, and will 
perish by thousands if the vessels which contain the food 
are not furnished with floats, on which they can safely 
stand to help themselves. 

As the fly was not intended to banquet on blossoms, 
but on substances in which it might easily be drowned, 
it cautiously alights on the edge of any vessel containing 
liquid food, and warily helps itself; while the poor bee, 
plunging in headlong, speedily perishes. The sad fate of 
their unfortunate companions does not in the least deter 
others who approach the tempting lure, from madly alight- 
ing on the bodies of the dying and the dead, to share the 
same miserable end ! No one can understand the extent 
of their infatuation, until he has seen a confectioner's shop 
assailed by myriads of hungry bees. I have seen thou- 
sands strained out from the syrups in which they had 
perished ; thousands moro alighting even upon the boiling 
sweets ; the floors covered and windows darkened with 
bees, some crawling, others flying, and others still, so 
completely besmeared as to be able neither to crawl nor 
fly — not one in ten able to carry home its ill-gotten spoils, 
and yet the air filled w T ith new hosts of thoughtless 
comers. 

I "once furnished a candy-shop, in the vicinity of my 
Apiary, with guaze-wire windows and doors, after the 



278 THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 

bees had commenced their depredations. On finding 
themselves excluded, they alighted on the wire by thou- 
sands, fairly squealing with vexation as they vainly tried 
to force a passage through the meshes. Baffled in every 
effort, they attempted to descend the chimney, reeking 
with sweet odors, even although most who entered it fell 
with scorched wings into the fire, and it became necessary 
L ,o put wire-guaze over the top of the chimney also.* 

As I have seen thousands of bees destroyed in such 
places, thousands more hopelessly struggling in the delud- 
ing sweets, and yet increasing thousands, all unmindful 
of their danger, blindly hovering over and alighting on 
them, how often have they reminded me of the infatuation 
of those who abandon themselves to the intoxicating cup. 
Even although such persons see the miserable victims of 
this degrading vice falling all around them into premature 
graves, they still press madly on, trampling, as it were, 
over their dead bodies, that they too may sink into the 
same abyss, and their sun also go down in hopeless 
gloom. 

The avaricious bee that, despising the slow process of 
extracting nectar from " every opening flower," plunges 
recklessly into the tempting sweets, has ample time to 
bewail its folly. Even if it does not forfeit its life, it 
returns home with a woe-begone look, and sorrowful 
note, in marked contrast with the bright hues and merry 
sounds with which its industrious fellows come back from 
their happy rovings amid u budding honey-flowers and 
sweetly-breathing fields." 

* Manufacturers of candies and syrups will find it to their interest to fit such 
guards to their premises ; for, if only one bee in a hundred escapes with its load, 
i considerable loss will be i curred in the course of the season. 



THE APIARY. 271) 



CHAPTER XV. 

THE APIARY PROCURING BEES TO STOCK IT TRANSFER- 
RING BEES FROM COMMON TO MOVABLE-COMB HIVES. 

An intimate acquaintance with the honey resources of 
the country is highly important to those desirous of 
engaging largely in bee-culture. While, in some localities, 
bees will accumulate large stores, in others, only a mile or 
two distant, they may yield but a small profit.* 

Wherever the Apiary is established, great pains should 
be taken to protect the bees against high winds.f Their 
hives should be placed where they will not be annoyed 
by foot passengers or cattle, and should never be very 
near places where sweaty horses must stand or pass. If 
managed on the swarming plan, it is very desirable that 
they should be in full sight of the rooms most occupied, 
or at least where the sound of their swarming will be 
easily heard. 

In the Northern and Middle States, the hives should 
have a south-eastern exposure, to give the bees the benefit 
of the sun when it will be most conducive to their welfare. 
By using my movable stands (Plate V., Fig. 16), the 
hives may be made to face in any desired direction. The 
plot occupied by the Apiary should be in grass, mowed 
frequently, and kept free from weeds. Hives are too 

* " While Huber resided at Cour, and afterwards at Vivai, his bees suffered so 
much from scanty pasturage, that he could only preserve them by feeding, although 
stocks that were but two miles from him were, in each case, storing their hives 
abundantly." — Bet an. 

t By tacking a piece of muslin to the alighting-board and the projecting parts of 
the stand (Plate V.. Fig. 16), the bees, as they slack up, will alight on the cloth — 
to escape being bruised or blown away — and thus will easily gain their hives. Tn 
Windy situations, thousands of bees (p. 186) may be thus saved. 



280 THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEK. 

often placed where many bees perish by falling into the 
dirt, or among the tall weeds and grass, where spiders 
and toads find their choicest lurking-places. 

Covered Apiaries, unless built at great expense, afford 
little or no protection against extreme heat or cold, and 
much increase the risk of losing the queens. 

In the Summer, no place is so congenial to bees as the 
shade of trees, if it is not too dense, or their branches so 
low as to interfere with their flight. As the weather 
becomes cool, they can easily be moved to any more 
desirable Winter location. If colonies are moved in the 
line of their flight, and a short distance at a time, no loss 
of bees will be incurred ; but, if moved only a few yards, 
oil at once, many will often be lost. By a gradual pro- 
cess, the hives in an Apiary may, in the Fall, be brought 
into a narrow compass, so that they can be easily shel 
tered from the bleak Winter winds. In the Spring, they 
may be gradually returned to their old positions.* 

PROCURING BEES TO STOCK AN APIARY. 

The beginner will ordinarily find it best to stock his 
Apiary with swarms of the current year, thus avoiding, 
until he can prepare himself to meet them, the perplexi- 
ties which often accompany either natural or artificial 
swarming. If new swarms are purchased, unless they are 
large and early, they may only prove a bill of expense. 
If old stocks are purchased, such only should be selected 
as are healthy and populous. If removed after the work- 
ing season has begun, they should be brought from a 
distance of at least two miles (p. 156). 

* By removing the strongest stocks in an Apiary the first day, and others not 
so strong the next, and continuing the process until all were removed, I have safely 
changed the location of my Apiary, when compelled to move my bees in the work- 
ing season. On the removal of the last hive, but few bees returned to the old 
spot. The change, as thus conducted, strengthened the weaker stocks. 



STOCKING THE APIARY. 281 

If the bees are not all at home when the hive is to be 
removed, blow a little smoke into its entrance, to cause 
those within to fill themselves with honey, and to prevent 
them from leaving for the fields. Repeat this process 
from time to time, and in about half an hour all will 
have returned. If any are clustered on the outside, they 
may be driven within by smoke. 

The common hives may be prepared for removal by 
inverting them and tacking a coarse towel over them, or 
strips of lath may be laid over wire-cloth, and brads driven 
through them into the edges of the hive. 

Confine the hive, so that it cannot be jolted, to a bed 
of straw in a wagon with springs, and be sure, before 
starting, that it is impossible for a bee to get out. The 
inverted position of the hive will give the bees what air 
they need, and guard their combs from being loosened. 
It will be next to impossible, in warm weather, to move a 
hive which contains much new comb. 

New swarms may be brought home in any old box 
which has ample ventilation. A tea-chest, with wire- 
cloth on the top, sides, and bottom-board, will be found 
very convenient. The bees may be shut up in this box as 
soon as they are hived. New swarms require even more 
air than old stocks, being full of honey, and closely clus- 
tered together. They should be set in a cool place, and, 
if the weather is very sultry, should not be removed until 
night. Many swarms are suffocated by the neglect of these 
precautions. The bees may be easily shaken out from 
this temporary hive (p. 139). 

When movable-comb hives are sent away to receive a 
swarm, two strips of wood, with small pieces nailed to them 
to go between the frames and keep them apart, should be 
laid over the frames. The cover, or honey-board, should 
then be screwed fast, and, if the strips are of proper 



282 THE HIVE AND MONET-BEE. 

thickness, one-eighth of an inch air-space will be left all 
around the hive, which, with the other ventilators, will 
give air enough. If an old stock, in hot weather, is to 
be moved any distance in such a hive, it will be advisable 
to fasten wire-cloth in front of the portico, so that the bees 
can leave their combs (p. 91) and cluster there. Hives 
with movable frames should be arranged in such a posi- 
tion that the frames run from front to rear, and not from 
side to side, in the carriage. My glass hives ought never 
to be sent off for swarms. 

Inexperienced persons will seldom find it profitable to 
begin bee-keeping on a large scale. By using movable- 
comb hives, they can rapidly increase their stocks after 
they have acquired skill, and have ascertained, not simply 
that money can be made by keeping bees, but that they 
can make it. While large profits can be realized by care- 
ful and experienced bee-keepers, those who are otherwise 
will be almost sure to find their outlay result only in 
vexatious losses. An Apiary neglected or mismanaged is 
worse than afarm overgrown with weeds or exhausted 
by ignorant tillage ; for the land, by prudent management, 
may again be made fertile, but the bees, when once 
destroyed, are a total loss. . 

TRANSFERRING BEES FROM COMMON TO MOV ABLE-COMB 

HIVES. 

This process may be easily effected whenever the 
weather is warm enough for bees to fly.* It is conducted 
as follows: Drive the bees into a forcing-box (p. 154), 
which put on their old stand, and carry the parent-hive to 
some place where you cannot be annoyed by other bees. 
Have on hand tools for prying off a side of the hive ; a 

* It has frequently been done, in Winter, for purposes of experiment, by reawu 
Ing the bees into a warm room. 



STOCKING THE APIARY. 283 

large knife for cutting out the combs; vessels for the 
honey ; a table or board, on which to lay the brood- 
combs ; cotton-twine or tape, for fastening them into the 
frames ; and water for washing off, from time to time, the 
honey which will stick to your hands. Having selected 
the working combs, carefully cut them rather large, so 
that they will just crowd into the frames, and retain their 
places in their natural position until the bees have time to 
fasten them. It will be well to wind some twine or tape, 
which should be subsequently removed, around the upper 
and lower slats of the frames, as an additional security. 
Small pieces of empty comb may be fastened with melted 
wax and resin (p. 72).* 

When the hive is thus prepared, the bees may be put 
into it and confined, water being given to them, until they 
have time to make all secure against robbers. 

When the weather is cool, the transfer should be made 
in a warm room, to prevent the brood from being fatally 
chilled. An expert Apiarian can easily complete the whole 
operation — from the driving of the bees to the returning 
of them to their new hive — in about half an hour, and with 
the loss of very few bees, old or young. The best time 
for transferring bees is about ten days after a swarm has 
issued or been forced from the old hive. The brood will 
then be sealed over, and able to bear considerable ex- 
posure. 

Until the feasibility of transferring bees by movable 
frames had been thoroughly tested, I felt irreconcilably 

* The Kcv. Levi Wheaton prefers to use combs for guides, and confines them by 
a thin strip of wood sprung between the uprights of the frames, so as to press against 
the lower edges of the combs. 

Mr. Win. W. Cary, in transferring, uses strips three-eighths of an inch wide and 
one-eighth thick, cut from any springy wood, and half an inch longer than the depth 
of the frames. He fastens them together in pairs, with strings which keep them 
j ust far enough apart to pass over the tops and bottoms of the frames. Two pairs 
will be needed for each frame, and they must be removed after the combs are 
firmly secured by the bees, which will be done in two or three days. 



284 THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 

opposed to any attempt to dislodge them from their 
previous habitations. The process, as it has been ordi- 
narily conducted, has resulted in the wanton sacrifice of 
thousands of stocks. 

Dr. Kirtland thus speaks of the results of transferring 
some of his colonies to the movable-comb hives : "I had 
three stocks transferred to an equal number of Mr. 
Langstroth's hives. The first had not swarmed in two 
years, and had long ceased to manifest any industry ; the 
others had never swarmed. All the hives were filled with 
black and filthy comb, candied honey, concrete bee-bread, 
and an accumulation of the cocoons and larvae of the 
moth. Within twenty-four hours, each colony became 
reconciled to its new tenement, and began to labor with 

far greater activity than any of my old stocks I 

have now no stronger colonies than these, which I consi- 
dered of little value till my acquaintance with this new 
hive." — Ohio Farmer, Dec. 12, 1857. 



HONEY. 285 



CHAPTER XVI. 

HONEY. 

That hone j is a vegetable product, was known to the 
ancient Jews, one of whose Rabbins asks : " Since we may 
not eat bees, which are unclean, why are we allowed to 
eat honey?" and replies: "Because bees do not make 
honey, but only gather it from plants and flowers." 

Bees often obtain a saccharine substance from the 
honey-dews, which are found on the foliage of many 
trees, and are sometimes merely an exudation from their 
leaves, though oftener a discharge from the bodies of 
small aphides or " plant-lice."* 

Messrs. Kirby and Spence, in their interesting work on 
Entomology, have given a description of the honey-dew 
furnished by the aphides : 

''" The loves of the ants and the aphides have long been cele- 
brated: you will always find the former very busy on those trees 
and plants on which the latter abound; and, if you examine 
somewhat more closely, you will discover that the object of the 
ants, in thus attending upon the aphides, is to obtain the saccha- 
rine fluid secreted by them, which may well be denominated their 
milk. This fluid, which is scarcely inferior to honey in sweet- 
ness, issues in limpid drops from the abdomen of these insects, not 
only by the ordinary passage, but also by two setiform tubes, 
placed one on each side, just above it. Their sucker being inserted 
in the tender bark, is, without intermission, employed in absorb- 

* The Abbe Boissier de Saiwages, in " 1672, described very fully and accurately 
these two species of honey-dew. The first kind, he says, has the same origin with 
the manna on the ash and maple trees of Calabria and Briancon, where it flows 
plentifully from their leaves and trunks, and thickens in the form in which it is 
usually seen. , I have received specimens of a honey-dew from California, which is 
6aid to fall from the oak trees in stalactites of considerable size. 



286 THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 

mg the sap. which, after it has passed through these organs, they 
keep continually discharging. When no ants attend them, hy a 
certain jerk of the hody, which takes place at regular intervals, 
they ejaculate it to a distance." 

" Mr. Knight once observed a shower of honey-dew descending 
in innumerable small globules, near one of his oak trees. He cut 
off one of the branches, took it into the house, and, holding it in a 
stream of light admitted through a small opening, distinctly saw 
the aphides ejecting the fluid from their bodies with considerable 
force, and this accounts for its being frequently found in situations 
where it could not have arrived by the mere influence of gravita- 
tion. The drops that are thus spurted out, unless interrupted by 
the surrounding foliage, or some other interposing body, fall upon 
the ground,* and the spots may often be observed, for some time, 
beneath and around the trees, affected with honey-dew, till washed 
away by the rain. The power which these insects possess of 
ejecting the fluid from their bodies, seems to have been wisely 
instituted to preserve cleanliness in each individual fly, and, 
indeed, for the preservation of the whole family* for, pressing as 
they do upon one another, they would otherwise soon be glued 
together, and rendered incapable of stirring. On looking stead- 
fastly at a group of these insects (Aphides salicis) while feeding 
on the bark of the willow, their superior size enabled us to per- 
ceive some of them elevating their bodies and emitting a trans- 
parent substance in the form of a small shower : 

" * Nor scorn ye now, fond elves, the foliage sear, 
When the light aphids, armM with puny spear, 
Probe each emulgent vein, till bright below, 
Like falling stars, clear drops of nectar glow/ — Evans. 

11 Honey-dew usually appears upon the leaves as a viscid 
transparent substance, as sweet as honey itself, sometimes in the 
form of globules, at others resembling a syrup. It is generally 
most abundant from the middle of June to the middle of July — 
sometimes as late as September. 

"It is found chiefly upon the oak, the elm, the maple, the 
plane, the sycamore, the lime, the hazel, and the blackberry ;. occa« 




HONEY. 287 

sionally also on the cherry, currant, and other fruit trees. Some- 
times only one species of trees is affected at a time. The oak 
generally affords the largest quantity. At the season of its 
greatest abundance, the happy, humming noise of the bees may 
be heard at a considerable distance, sometimes nearly equalling in 
loudness the united hum of swarming.'*' — Bevan. 

In some seasons, bees gather large supplies from these 
honey-dews, but it is usually abundant only once in three 
or four years. The honey obtained from it, though 
seldom light-colored, is generally of a good quality. 

The quality of honey varies very much : some kinds 
are bitter, and others very unwholesome, being gathered 
from poisonous flowers. A Mandingo African informed a 
iady of my acquaintance that his countrymen eat none 
tho : unsealed until it has been boiled. In some of our 
Soutnern States, all that is unsealed is rejected. The 
noxious properties of honey gathered from poisonous 
flowers would seem to be mostly evaporated (p. 276) 
before it is sealed over by the bees. The boiling, how- 
ever expels them still more effectually, for some persons 
cannot eat even the best, when raw, with impunity. 
When honey is taken from the bees, it should be put 
where it will be safe from all intruders, and not exposed 
to so low a temperature as to candy in the cells. The 
little red and the large black ant are extravagantly fond of 
it, and will carry off large quantities if within their reach. 
Old honey is more wholesome than that freshly gathered 
by the bees.* 

* The following extract from the work of Sir J. More, London, 1707, will show 
the extravagant estimate which the old writers set upon bee-products : 

41 Natural wax is altered by distillation into an -oyl of marvellous vertue : it is 
rather a Divine medicine than humane, because, in wounds or inward diseases, it 
worketh miracles. The bee helpeth to cure all your diseases, and is the best little 

friend a man has in the world Honey is of subtil parts, and therefore doth 

pierce as oyl, and easily passeth the parts of the body ; it openeth obstructions, and 
cleareth the heart and lights of those humors which fall from the head ; it purgeth 
the foulness of the body cureth phlegmatick matter, and sharpeneth the stomach; 



288 THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 

To drain honey from virgin combs, bring it to the boil- 
ing point in any clean vessel, and, when cool, the wax 
will float on the top, and the honey may be strained and 
poured into bottles or jars, which should be tightly 
covered,- to exclude the air. Should it candy, these may 
be put into cold water, and brought to the boiling-point, 
when the honey will be as nice as ever. Combs which 
contain bee-bread should be kept separate from the 
others, as the honey from them is of an inferior quality.* 

Empty comb which cannot be used in the hive or spare 
honey-boxes (p. 71), may be put into water and boiled, 
when the pure wax will float upon the top, and harden if 
poured into cold water. If melted again, and run into 
vessels slightly greased, the impurities will settle at the 
bottom. Combs which have been so long used by bees 
for breeding that they will not readily part with their 
wax, may be put into a coarse woolen bag, with a flat-iron 
on the top to make it sink, and boiled until the wax has 
risen to the top of the kettle. Very old brood-combs are 
seldom worth rendering into wax. 

New swarms, unless very large, ought not to be 
admitted to the surplus honey receptacles until they have 
been hived three or four days. Old stocks should have 
access to them quite early in the season. If the hives 
stand in the sun, and the weather is warm, ample venti- 
lationf should be given, while bees are storing honey. 

it purgeth those things which hurt the clearness of the eyes, breedeth good blood, 
«ti 'rethup natural heat, and prolongeth life; it keepeth all things uncorrupt which 
are put into it, and is a sovereign medicament, both for outward and inward mala- 
dies; ithelpeth the greif of the jaws, the kernels growing within the mouth, and 
the squinancy ; it is drank against the biting of a serpent or a mad dog ; it is good for 
8uch as have eaten mushrooms, for the falling sickness, and against the surfeit. 
Being boiled, it is lighter of digestion, and more nourishing." 

* In Russia and Germany, very little honey is sold in the comb. Purchasers in 
this country should beware of the inferior West India honey, which is often sold 
in cans as a superior article, for two or three times its cost. 

+ My hives admit of such complete ventilation, that they may be safely put 
anywhere except where there is a pent heat. 



Fig. 56. 



Plate XIX. 




HOXFT. 289 

The surplus honey may be taken from my hive3 in a 
great variety of ways : 

(1st.) The hive maybe made so long that it can be 
taken from the ends on frames; and if these ends be 
separated from the main body of the hive by movable or 
permanent partitions, the purest honey will be deposited 
in them. The partitions should be kept about a quarter 
of an inch from the top and bottom, to allow the bees to 
pass freely into the ends.* 

(2d.) The surplus honey may be stored in large or 
small frames, put in an upper box or hive (see Plates III., 
V., and VII., Figs. 9, 16, and 20). Such a box,f when 
full, may, by a little smoke, be easily removed, and the 
bees driven from it. Its contents may be sold in gross, 
or by the single frame. 

In all my hives, any additional storage-room may be 
given, which the season or locality can ever require. The 
experienced bee-keeper well knows that bees will make 
much more honey in a large box, than m several small 
ones whose united capacity is the same. In small boxes, 
they cannot so well maintain their animal heat, and their 
effective force is thus often wasted at the height of 
the honey-harvest, when time is, to the last degree, 
precious.^ 

* Such a hive, holding a dozen frames in the central apartment, and six in each 
of the end ones may be cheaply made. The side apartments may be rabbeted so 
as to receive short frames running from the ends to the partitions, or long ones from 
front to rear. 

t In a favorable season, I have taken two such boxes, each holding over fifty 
pounds, from a non-swarming hive, and, in good locations, still larger returns may 
often be realized. The boxes may be set over the main hive, and, as the bees can 
pass into them without being obliged to travel over the combs, the unusual height 
will not annoy them. 

% I am not aware that the attention of Apiarians has ever been called to the loss 
incurred by compelling bees to store their surplus honey in small receptacles. The 
bee-keeper cannot afford to sell honey stored in small receptacles, except at a 
considerable advance over its value in large boxes. By movable frames, the usual 
objections to large boxes are removed, as honev may be conveniently taken from 
them for sale or use. 
13 



290 THE HIVE AND HONEY-BfcE. 

No metallic slides are needed for removing surplus 
honey-boxes. By blowing smoke into them, before they 
are taken off, most of the bees will retreat to the main 
hive, and, if removed early in the morning, or late in the 
afternoon, and placed on a sheet fastened to the hive, the 
bees, attracted by the hum of their companions, will 
speedily leave them, but not until they have swallowed 
all that they can hold. When gorged, they are very 
reluctant to fly, and this is the reason they are so long in 
leaving when boxes are carried from the hive. The 
sooner the bees are driven from them the better, and care 
must be taken to protect them from robbers, who would 
soon carry their contents to their own hives. If any of the 
frames contain brood, they may be returned to the bees. 
Should the queen be in the box, many bees will refuse to 
leave it until she is returned to the hive. 

(3rd.) Glass vessels, of almost any size or form, make 
beautiful receptacles for the spare honey; they should 
have a piece of comb fastened in them, and should be 
covered with something warm if the weather is cool.* 

(4th.) If small boxes are used for surplus honey, the one 
shown in Plate X., Fig. 24, the dimensions of which are 
given in the Explanation of Hives, will probably be found 
the simplest, cheapest, and best.f 

To remove surplus honey stored in small receptacles, 

* Honey, stored in tumblers just large enough to receive one comb, may be 
placed in an elegant form upon the table. While all small receptacles waste the 
time of the bees, the shallow cells, so many of which must be made in any cylin- 
drical vessel, require as large a consumption of time and materials for their covers 
and bottoms as those which hold more than twice as much honey. 

t Such a box, which should be furnished either with guides or pieces of comb, 
will hold three store-combs, weighing together over four pounds, and, by removing 
a glass, one may be cut out without disturbing the others. 

If all the joints of a box are made air-tight by a melted mixture of wax and resin, 
the bees will be saved much labor in stopping them with propolis ; and, when th«' 
entrance is closed and covered with tne same mixture, the honey may be trans- 
ported without leakage, even if the combs are broken. Boxes containing hon*»r 
should be very carefully packed, and lifted without the slightest jarring. 



HONEY. 291 

slowly pass a thin knife or spatula under the box, to 
loosen its attachments to the hive ; then, before raising it 
enough to allow any bees to escape, blow smoke under 
it,. and, when they have gorged themselves, it may be 
safely removed, the hole from the hive being closed or 
covered with another box. The few bees remaining in 
the receptacle that is taken off, will quickly fly to their 
hive. Those who are very timid, may use a slide to 
prevent any bees from escaping from the hole. Smoke, 
however, is altogether preferable. 

While the most timid may, with proper instructions, 
safely remove honey, even from the main hive (p. 169). 
a child ten years old may learn to take off small boxes 01 
glasses. 



292 THE HIYE AND HONEY-BEE. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

BEE-PASTURAGE — OVER-STOCKING. 

Every bee-keeper should carefully acquaint himself 
with the honey-resources of his own neighborhood. My 
limits will allow me to mention only some of the most 
important plants from which bees draw their supplies. 
Since Dzierzon's discovery of the use which may be made 
of rye flour, early blossoms, producing pollen only, are 
not so important. 

All the varieties of willow abound in both bee-bread 
and honey, and their early blossoming gives them a 
special value : 

u First the gray willow's glossy pearls they steal, 
Or rob the hazel of its golden meal, 
While the gay crocus and the violet blue, 
Yield to their flexile trunks ambrosial dew " — Evans. 

The sugar-maple (Acer saccharinus) yields a large 
supply of delicious honey, and its blossoms, hanging in 
graceful fringes, will be alive with bees. 

Of the fruit trees, the apricot, peach, plum, cherry, and 
pear, are great favorites; but none furnishes so much 
honey as the apple. 

The dandelion, whose blossoms furnish pollen and 
honey, when the yield from the fruit trees is nearly over, 
is worthy of a high rank among honey-producing plants. 

The tulip tree (Liriodendrori), often called "poplar" 
and " white wood," is one of the greatest honey-producing 
trees in the world. As its blossoms expand in succession, 
new swarms will sometimes till their hives from this 



PASTDRAGE. 293 

source alone. The honey, though dark,* is of a good 
flavor. This tree often attains a height of over one hun- 
dred feet, and its rich foliage, with its large blossoms of 
mingled green and yellow, make it a most beautiful 
sight. 

The linden, or bass-wood (Tilia Americana) yields an 
abundance of white honey of a delicious flavor, and, as it 
blossoms when both the swarms and parent-stocks are 
usually populous, the weather settled, and other bee- 
forage scarce, its value to the bee-keeper is very great.f 

u Here their delicious task, the fervent bees 
In swarming millions tend : around, athwart, 
Through the soft air the busy nations fly, 
Cling to the bud, and with inserted tube, 
Suck its pure essence, its etherial soul." — Thomson. 

This majestic tree, adorned, so late in the season, with 
beautiful clusters of fragrant blossoms, is well worth 
attention as an ornamental shade-tree. By adorning our 
villages and country residences with a fair allowance of 
tulip, linden, and such other trees as are not only beautiful 
to the eye, but attractive to bees, the honey-resources of 
the country might, in process of time, be greatly increased. 

The common locust is a very desirable tree for the 
vicinity of an Apiary, yielding much honey when it is 
peculiarly needed by the bees. In many districts, locust 
and bass-wood plantations would be valuable for their 
timber alone. 

Hives in the vicinity of extensive beds of seed-onions 
will speedily become very heavy ; the offensive odor of 

* The honey of Hymettus, which has been so celebrated from the most ancient 
times, is of a fair golden color. The lightest-colored honey is by no means always 
the best. 

t Judge Fishback says that near'y all his surplus honey is gathered from the 
linden. A correspondent of the Bienenzeitung, in Wisconsin, states that, in 1853, 
several of his hives increased in weight one hundred pounds each, while this tir* 
tvas in blossom. 



294 THE HIYE AND HONEY-BK'\ 

the freshly-gathered honey disappears before it is sealed 
over by the bees. 

Of all the sources from which bees derive their supplies, 
white clover is usually the most important. It yields large 
quantities of very pure white honey, and wherever it 
abounds, the bee will find a rich harvest. In most parts 
of this country, it seems to be the chief reliance of the 
Apiary. Blossoming at a season of the year when the 
weather is usually both dry and hot, and the bees gather- 
ing its honey after the sun has dried off the dew, it is 
ready to be sealed over almost at once. This clover 
ought to be much more extensively cultivated than it now 
is. The Hon. Frederick Holbrook, of Brattleboro', Ver- 
mont, one of New England's ablest practical farmers and 
writers on agricultural subjects, thus speaks of its value : v 

" Red-top. red clover, and white clover seeds, sown together, 
produce a quality of hay universally relished by stock. My prac- 
tice is, to seed all dry,^ sandy, and gravelly lands with this mix- 
ture. The red and white clover pretty much make the crop the 
first year ) the second year, the red clover begins to disappear, and 
the red-top to take its place ; and after that, the red-top and white 
clover have full possession, and make the very best hay for horses 
or oxen, milch cows or young stock, that I have been able to pro- 
duce. The crop per acre, as compared with herds-grass (timothy) 
is not so bulky ; but, tested by weight and by spending quality 
ii> the Winter, it is much the more valuable." 

For years I sought in vain to procure a cross between 
the red and white clover, having the honey and hay- 
producing properties of the red, with a short blossom, 
into which the domestic bee might insert its proboscis. 
Such a variety, originating in Sweden, has been imported 

* Mr. Wagner says : " The yield of honey from various plants and trees depends 
not only on the character of the season, but on the kind of soil, in which they 
grow. Marshy meadows are inferior t > those of a drier soil for bee-pasturage. 
White clover growing in the latter will be visited by bees, when that growing ir 
the former is neglected by them/ 1 




PASTURAGE. 295 



by Mr. B. C. Rogers, of Philadelphia It grows as tall as 
the red clover, bears many blossoms on a stalk, in size 
resembling the white, and, while it answers admirably for 
lees, is said to be preferred by cattle to almost any other 
kind of grass. It is known by the name of Alsike, or 
Swedish white clover. 

Mr. Wagner thus speaks of it: 

" The views of the value of Swedish white clover, presented 
by reports from twelve different agricultural societies in the dis- 
trict of Dresden, are the result of careful experiments, made in 
localities differing greatly in soil and exposure. We recapitulate 
the chief points : 

" 1. That Swedish white clover is not so liable as red clover to 
suffer from cold and wet weather. 2. That on dry and sandy 
soils it is not so certain or valuable a crop as common white 
clover, but succeeds admirably on more loamy soils, and, on such, 
surpasses either of the other kinds. 3. That, in any rotation, it 
may safely follow the common red clover. 4. That the yield per 
acre of the first mowing is not inferior to that of the red clover, 
but that, ordinarily, the aftermath, or rowen, is not so abundant. 
5. That, for soiling purposes, it should not be mown till it is in 
full blossom. 6. That, when cured, it is, as hay, a highly nutri- 
tious fodder, and is preferred, by cattle and milch cows, to that 
made from red clover. 7. That the aftermath is followed by a 
dense and excellent growth, furnishing most valuable pasturage 
till late in the season. 8. That it yields an abundance of seed, 
easily threshed out by flail or machine, three or four days after 
mowing. 9. That Swedish white clover is fed to most advantage 
after it has fully matured its blossoms; whilst red clover, if 
allowed to stand to this stage, w T ill have already lost a consider- 
able portion of its nutritive properties. 

:; E. Furst, the editor of the Frauendorfer Blatter, says that this 
clover is pre-eminent, both in quality and quantity of product, 
and is especially valuable for the continued succulency of the 
stalk, even when the plant is in full bloom. It requires a less 
fertile soil than the red clover, and is less liable to be thrown cut 



296 THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 

by frost in Winter. It also yields a heavier second crop than the 
common white clover." 

The blossoms of buckwheat often furnish, late in the 
season, a very valuable bee-food.* 

Buckwheat is uncertainf in its honey-yielding qualities, 
and, in some seasons, hardly a bee will be seen upon large 
fields of it. Our best agriculturists are agreed that, on 
many soils, it is a very profitable crop, and every Apiary 
ought to have some in its vicinity. J 

The Canada thistle yields copious supplies of very pure 
honey, after the white clover has begun to fail. If 
farmers will tolerate its growth, it is interesting to know 
that it can be turned to so good an account. 

The raspberry furnishes a most delicious honey. In 
flavor it is superior to that from the white clover, while 
its delicate comb almost melts in the mouth. The sides 
of the roads, the borders of the fields, and the pastures of 
much of the " hill-country " of New England, abound 
with the wild red raspberry, and, in such favored loca- 
tions, numerous colonies of bees may be kept. When it 
is in blossom, bees hold even the white clover in light 

* This honey is usually gathered when the atmosphere is moist, and in wet sea- 
sons, is somewhat liable to sour in the cells. Honey gathered when the atmosphere 
is dry is usually of the thickest consistency. 

t The secretion of honey in plants, like the flow of the sap from the sugar-maple, 
depends on a variety of causes, many of which elude our closest scrutiny. In 
some seasons the saccharine juices abound, while in others they are so deficient 
that bees can obtain scarcely any food from fields all white with clover. A change 
in the secretion of honey will often take place so suddenly, that the bees will, in a 
few hours, pass from idleness to great activity. 

X Bzierzon says: "In the stubble of Winter grain, buckwheat might be sown, 
whereby ample forage would be secured to the bees, late in the season, and a remune- 
rating crop of grain garnered besides. This plant, growing so rapidly and maturing 
so soon, so productive in favorable seasons, and so well adapted to cleanse the land, 
certainly deserves more attention from farmers than it receives ; and its more 
frequent and general culture would greatly enhance the profits of bee-keeping. Its 
long-continued and frequently-renewed blossoms yield honey so abundantly, that 
a populous colony may easily collect fifty pounds in two weeks, if the weather is 
lavorable." 



TASTURAGK. 297 

esteem. Its drooping blossoms protect the honey from 
moisture, and they can work upon it when the weather is 
so wet that they can obtain nothing from the upright 
blossoms of the clover. As it furnishes a succession of 
flowers for some weeks, it yields a supply almost as lasting 
as the white clover. The precipitous and rocky lands, 
where it most abounds, might be made almost as valuable 
as some of the vine-clad terraces of the mountain districts 
of Europe. 

•* D:\ Bevan suggests the use of lemon-thyme as an edging for 
garden walks and flower beds. No material good, however, can be 
done to a large colony by the few plants that can be sown around a 
bee-house. The bee is too much of a roamer to take pleasure in trim 
gardens.* It is the wild tracts of heath and furze, the broad acres 
of bean-fields and buckwheat, the lime avenues, the hedge-row 
flowers, and the clover meadows, that furnish her haunts and fill 
her cells. To those who wish to watch their habits, a plot of bee- 
flowers is important, and we know not the bee that could refuse 
the following beautiful invitation of Professor Smythe : 

44 4 Thou cheerful Bee ! come, freely come, 

And travel round my woodbine bower ; 
Delight me with thy wandering hum, 

And rouse me from my musing hour : 
Oh ! try no more those tedious fields ; 
Come, taste the sweets my garden yields : 
The treasures of each blooming mine, 
The buds, the blossoms — all are thine ! 
And, careless of this noontide heat, 

I'll follow as thy ramble guides, 
To watch thee pause and chafe thy feet, 

And sweep them o'er thy downy sides ; 
Then in a flower's bell nestling lie, 
And all thy envied ardor ply ! 
Then o'er the stem, though fair it grow, 
With touch rejecting, glance and go. 

* I should almost as soon expect, from a small grass-plot, to furnish food for 
h^rd of cattle, as to provision bees from garden plants. 
13* 



298 THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 

Nature kind ! laborer wise ! 

That roam'st along the Summer's ray, 
Glean'st every bliss thy life supplies, 

And meet'st prepared thy wintry day ! 
Go, envied, go — with crowded gates, 
The hive thy rich return awaits ; 
Bear home thy store in triumph gay, 
And shame each idler of the day !' " 

, London Quarterly Review. 

If there is any plant which would justify cultivation 
exclusively for bees, it is the borage (JBorago officinalis). 
It blossoms continually from June until severe frost, and, 
like the raspberry, is frequented by bees even in moist 
weather. The honey from it is of a superior quality, and 
an acre would support a large number of stocks. 

The golden-rod (Solidago) affords a late and very 
valuable pasturage for bees, yielding, in some regions and 
seasons, an important part of their Winter stores. Some 
of the earlier-flowering varieties are of no value to bees ; 
but those which blossom in September abound in honey 
of a superior quality. 

The numerous species of asters, lining, in many dis- 
tricts, the road-sides and the borders of fields, are almost 
as valuable to the bees as the golden-rod. Where these 
two plants abound, bees should not be fed until they have 
passed out of bloom, as light but populous stocks will 
often obtain from them all the Winter stores they need. 

The following catalogue of bee-plants, which might 
easily be enlarged, is taken from Nutt, an English 
Apiarian : 

" Alder, almond, althea frutex, alyssum, amaranthus, apple, 
apricot, arbutus, ash, asparagus, aspin, aster, balm, beau, beach, 
betony, blackberry, borage, box, bramble, broom, bugloss [viper 's), 
buckwheat, burnet, cabbage, cauliflower, celery, cherry, chestnut, 
chickweed, clover, cole or coleseed, coltsfoot, coriander, crocus, 



OVER-STOCKrNG. 299 

crowfoot, crown imperial, cucumber, currants, Cyprus, daffodil, 
dandelion, dogberry, elder, elm, endive, fennel, furze, golden-rod, 
gooseberry, gourd, hawthorn, hazel, heath, holly, hollyhock 
(trumpet), honeysuckle, honeywort (cerinthe), hyacinth, hyssop, ivy, 
jonquil, kidney bean, laurel, laurustinus, lavender, leek, lemon, 
lily (water), lily (white), lime, linden (bass-wood), liquidamber, 
liriodendron, locust, lucerne, mallow (marsh), marigold (French). 
marigold (single), maple, marjoram (sweet), mellilot, melons, 
mezereon, mignionette, mustard, nasturtium, nectarine, nettle 
(white), oak, onion, orange, ozier, parsnip, pea, peach, pear, 
peppermint, plane, plum, poplar, poppy, primrose, privet, 
radish, ragweed, raspberry, rosemary (wild), roses (single), rud- 
beckiae, saffron, sage, saintfoin, St. John's wort, savory (winter), 
snowdrop, snowberry, stock (single), strawberry, sunflower, syca- 
more, squash, tansy (wild), tare, teasel, thistles, thyme (lemon), 
thyme (wild), trefoil, turnip, vetch, violet (single), wallflower 
(single), woad, willow-herb, willow tree, yellow weasel-snout. ;; 

OUR COUNTRY NOT IN DANGER OF BEING OVERSTOCKED 
WITH BEES. 

If the opinions commonly entertained on the danger 
of overstocking are correct, bee-keeping must, in this 
country, be always an insignificant pursuit. 

It is difficult to repress a smile when the owner of a 
few hives, in a district where as many hundreds might be 
made to prosper, gravely imputes his ill-success to the fact, 
that too many bees are kept in his vicinity. If, in the 
Spring, a colony of bees is prosperous and healthy, it 
will gather abundant stores, in a favorable season, even 
if hundreds equally strong are in its immediate vicinity ; 
while, if it is feeble, it will be of little or no value, even 
if it is in " a land flowing with milk and honey," and 
there is not another stock within a dozen miles of it. 

As the great Xapoleon gained many of his victories by 
having an overwhelming force at the right place, in the 
right time, so the bee-keeper miist have strong colonies, 



300 THE HIVE AND HONKY-BEK. 

when numbers can be turned to the best account. If 
his stocks become strong only when they can do nothing 
but consume what little honey has been previously 
gathered, he is like a farmer who suffers his crops tc 
rot on the ground, and then hires a set of idlers to eat 
him out of house and home. 

There is probably not a square mile in this whole 
country which is overstocked with bees, unless it is so 
unsuitable for bee-keeping as to make it unprofitable to 
keep them at all. Such an assertion may seem unguarded, 
but I am happy to be able to confirm it by the following 
letter from Mr. Wagner, showing the experience of the 
largest cultivators in Europe : 

" Dear Sir : — In reply to your inquiry respecting the over-stock- 
ing of a district, I would say, that the present opinion of the cor- 
respondents of the Bienenzeitung, appears to be, that it cannot 
readily be done. Dzierzon says, in practice at least, • it never is 
done f and Dr. Radlkofer, of Munich, the President of the second 
Apiarian Convention, declares that his apprehensions on that 
score were dissipated by observations which he had opportunity 
and occasion to make when on his way home from the Convention. 
I have numerous accounts of Apiaries in pretty close proximity, 
containing from 200 to 300 colonies each. Ehrenfels had a thou- 
sand hives, at three separate establishments, indeed, but so close 
to each other that he could visit them all in half an hour's ride ; 
and he says that, in 1801, the average net yield of his Apiaries 
was two dollars per hive. In Russia and Hungary, Apiaries num- 
bering from 2.000 to 5,000 colonies are said not to be unfrequent ; 
and we know that as many as 4,000 hives are oftentimes congre- 
gated, in Autumn, at one point on the heaths of Germany. 
Hence, I think we need not fear that any district of this country, 
so distinguished for abundant natural vegetation and diversified 
culture, will very speedily be overstocked, particularly, after the 
importance of having stocks populous early in the Spring comes 
to be appreciated. A week or ten days of favorable weather a i - 
Ijia't season, when pasturage abounds, will enable a strong colony 









OVER-STOCKING. 301 

to lay up an ample supply for the year, if its labor be properly 
directed. 

" Mr. Kaden, one of the oldest contributors to the Bienenzeitung, 
in the number for December, 1852, noticing the communication 
from Dr. Radlkofer, says : ' I also concur in the opinion that a 
district of country cannot be overstocked with bees, and that, how- 
ever numerous the colonies, all can procure sufficient sustenance, 
if the surrounding country contain honey-yielding plants and 
vegetables, in the usual degree. Where utter barrenness prevails, 
the case is different, of course, as well as rare.' 

u The Fifteenth Annual Meeting of German Agriculturists was 
held in the city of Hanover, on the 10th of September, 1852, and 
in compliance with the suggestions of the Apiarian Convention, 
a distinct section devoted to bee-culture was instituted. The pro- 
gramme propounded sixteen questions for discussion, the fourth 
of which. was as follows : 

u c Can a district of country embracing meadows, arable land, 
orchards, and forests, be so overstocked with bees, that these may 
no longer find adequate sustenance, and yield a remunerating 
surplus of their products ?' 

u This question was debated with considerable animation. The 
Rev. Mr. Kleine — nine-tenths of the correspondents of the Bee- 
Journal are Clergymen — president of the section, gave it as his 
opinion that l it was hardly conceivable that such a country could 
be overstocked with bees.' Counsellor Herwig, and the Rev. Mr. 
Wilkens, on the contrary, maintained that ' it might be over- 
stocked.' In reply, Assessor Heyne remarked that, 'whatever 
might be supposed possible, as an extreme case, it was certain 
that, as regards the kingdom of Hanover, it could not be even 
remotely apprehended that too many Apiaries would ever be 
established ; and that, consequently, the greatest possible multi- 
plication of colonies might safely be aimed at and encouraged 
At the same time, he advised a proper distribution of Apiaries.' 

11 I might easily furnish you with more matter of this sort, and 
designate a considerable number of Apiaries in various parts of 
Germany, containing from twenty-five to five hundred colonies. 
But the question would still recur, do not these Aj iarics occupy 



302 THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 

comparatively isolated positions ? and, at this distance from the 
scene it would obviously be impossible to give a perfectly satis- 
factory answer. 

''According to the statistical tables of the kingdom of Hanover, 
the annual production of bees-wax in the province of Lunenberg 
is 300,000 lbs., about one-half of which is exported; and, assum- 
ing one pound of wax as the yield of each hive, w r e must suppose 
that 300,000 hives are annually i brimstoned ' in the province; 
and assuming further, in view of casualties, local influences, un- 
favorable seasons, &c, that only one-half of the whole number of 
colonies maintained, produce a swarm each every year, it would 
require a total of at least 600.000 colonies (141 to each square 
mile) to secure the result given in the tables. The number of 
square miles stocked, even to this extent, in this country, are, I 
suspect, 'few and far between.' It is very evident that this 
country is far from being overstocked ; nor is it likely that it ever 
will be. 

" A German writer alleges that c the bees of Lunenberg pay all 
the taxes assessed on their proprietors, and leave a surplus 
besides.' The importance attached to bee-culture accounts, in part, 
for the remarkable fact that the people of a district so barren, that 
it has been called c the Arabia of Germany,' are, almost without 
exception, in easy and comfortable circumstances. Could not 
still more favorable results be obtained in this country, under a 
rational system of management, availing itself of the aid of 
science, art, and skill ? 

" But I am digressing. My design was, to furnish you with an 
account of bee-culture as it exists in an entire district of country, 
in the hands of the common peasantry. This, I thought, would be 
more satisfactory, and convey a better idea of what may be done 
ou a large scale, than any number of instances which might be 
selected of splendid success in isolated cases. — Very truly yours, 

" Plev. L. L. Langstroth. Samuel Wagner m 

I am persuaded that, even in the poorest parts of New 
England, there are but few districts which could not be 
made to yield as large returns as the province of Lunen- 



OVKR-STOCKIXG. 30S 

berg, even if the old-fashioned plan of management was 
adhered to. The following interesting statements have 
been furnished to me by Mr. Wagner : 

Si : When a large flock of sheep.' says Oettl, ' is grazing on a 
limited area, there may soon be a deficiency of pasturage. Bat 
this cannot be asserted of bees, as a good honey-district cannot 
readily be overstocked with them. To-day. when the air is 
moist and warm, the plants may yield a superabundance of 
nectar : while to-morrow, being cold and wet, there may be a 
total want of it. When there is sufficient heat and moisture, the 
saccharine juices of plants will readily fill the nectaries, and will 
be quickly replenished when carried off by the bees. Every cold 
night checks the flow of honey, and every clear, warm day re- 
opens the fountain. The flowers expanded to-day must be visited 
while open ; for. if left to wither, their stores are lost. The same 
remarks will apply substantially in the case of honey-dews. 
Hence, bees cannot, as many suppose, collect to-morrow what is 
left ungathered to-day, as sheep may graze hereafter on the pas- 
turage they do not need now. Strong colonies and large Apiaries 
are in a position to collect ample stores when forage suddenly 
abounds, while, by patient, persevering industry, they may still 
gather a sufficiency, and even a surplus, when the supply is small, 
but more regular and protracted. 7 

" The same able Apiarian, whose golden rule in bee-keeping is, 
to keep none but strong colonies, says that, in the lapse of twenty 
years since he established his Apiary, there has not occurred a 
season in which the bees did not procure adequate supplies for 
themselves, and a surplus besides. Sometimes, indeed, he came 
near despairing, when April, May, and June were continually 
cold, wet. and unproductive ; but in July, his strong colonies 
speedily filled their garners, and stored up some treasure for him • 
while, in such seasons, small colonies could not even gather 
enough to keep them from starvation. 

"Mr. A. Braun states, in the Bienenzeitung, September, 1854, 
that be has a mammoth hive furnished with combs containing at 
least 184,230 cells,* and placed on a platform scale, that its weight 

* Such u hive would hold about three bushels. Wildnian sav3 that "a clergy 



304 THE HIVE AND H.ONEY-BEE. 

may readily be ascertained at stated periods. On the 18th of May^ 
it gained eighteen pounds and a half. On the eighteenth of June, 
a swarm weighing seven pounds issued from it, and the following 
day it gained over six pounds in weight. Ten days of abundant 
pasturage would enable such a colony to gather a large surplus, 
while five times the number of equally favorable opportunities 
would be of small avail to a feeble stock. 

" The island of Corsica paid to Rome an annual tribute of 
200,000 lbs. of wax, which presupposes the production of from 
two to three million pounds of honey yearly. The island contains 
3790 square miles. 

: ' According to Oettl (p. 389), Bohemia contained 160,000 colonies 
in 1853, from a careful estimate, and he thinks the country could 
readily support four times that number. The kingdom contains 
20.200 square miles. 

" In the province of Attica, in Greece, containing forty -five 
square miles, and 20,000 inhabitants, 20,000 hives are kept, each 
yielding, on an average, thirty pounds of honey and two pounds 
of wax. 

" East Friesland, a province of Holland, containing 1,200 square 
miles, maintains an average of 2,000 colonies per square mile. — 
(Heubel, Bienenzeitung. 1854, p. 11.) 

: * According to an official report, there were in Denmark, in 
1838, eighty-six thousand and thirty-six colonies of bees. The 
annual product of honey appears to be about 1,841,800 lbs. In 
1855, the export of wax from that country was 118,379 lbs. 

"In 1856, according to official returns, there were 58,964 
colonies of bees in the kingdom of Wurtemberg. 

" In 1857, the yield of honey and wax in the empire of Austria 
was estimated to be worth over seven millions of dollars." 

Doubtless, in these districts, where honey is so largely 
produced, great attention is paid to the cultivation of 
crops which, while in themselves profitable, afford abun- 
dant pasturage for bees. 

man set a well-stocked hive of bees on a tub turned bottom up, after having made 
a hole through the bottom, and took from the tub four hundied and twenty pound* 
of honey. 1 ' 






Alth* 



CKEHG. 



Although bees vrill fly, in search of food, over three 
miles,* still, if it is not within a circle of about two miles 
in every direction from the Apiary, they will be able to 
store but little surplus honey.f If pasturage abounds 
within a quarter of a mile from their hives, so much the 
better ; there is no great advantage, however, in having 
it close to them, unless there is a great supply, as bees, 
when they leave the hive, seldom alight upon the neigh- 
boring flowers. The instinct to fly some distance seems 
to have been given them to prevent them from wasting 
their time in prying into flowers already despoiled of their 
sweets by previous gatherers. 

In all my arrangements, I have aimed to save ei'try 
step for the bees that I possibly can. With the alighting- 
board properly arranged, and covered, in windy situations, 
with cotton cloth (p. 279), bees will be able to store more 
honey, even if they have to go a considerable distance 
for it, than they otherwise could from pasturage nearer at 
hand. Many bee-keepers utterly neglect all suitable pre- 
cautions to facilitate the labors of their bees, as though 
imagined them to be miniature locomotives, always 

* u Mr. Kaden. of Mayence, thinks that the range of the bee's flight does not usually 
extend more than three miles in all directions. Several years ago, a vessel, laden 
with sugar, anchored off Mayence, and was soon visited by the bees of the neigh- 
borhood,which continued to pass to and from the vessel from dawn to dark. One 
morning, when the bees were in full flight, the vessel sailed up the river. For a 
short time, the bees continued to fly as numerously as before ; but gradually the 
number diminished, and, in the conrse of half an hour, all had ceased to follow the 
which had, meanwhile, sailed more than four miles." — Bierumeitung* 

-.2 from the sweep that bees take from the side of a railroad train in 

a, we should estimate their pace at about thirty miles an hour. This would 

•em four minutes to reach the extremity of their common range, 

- Mr. Cotton saw a man in Germany who kept all his numerous stocks rich by 

changing the 5 r places as soon as the honey-season varied." * Sometimes he sends 

them to the moor*, sometimes to the meadows, sometimes to the forest, and some- 

- - the hills. In France — and the same practice has existed in Egypt from 

the most ancient times— they often put hundreds of hives in a boat, which floats 

down the stream by night and stops by day.* "—London Quarterly EevUw. 



306 THE HIVE AKD HONEY-BEE. 

fired up, and capable of an indefinite amount of exertion. 
A bee cannot put forth more than a certain amount of 
physical effort, and a large portion of this ought not to be 
spent in contending against difficulties from which it 
might easily be guarded. They may often be seen pant- 
ing after their return from labor, and so exhausted as to 
need rest before they enter the hive. 

Dzierzon's* experience as to the profits of bee-keeping 
has already been given (p. 21). With proper manage- 
ment, five dollars' worth of honey may, on an average of 
years, be obtained for each stock that is wintered in good 
condition. The worth of the new colonies I set off against 

* " It is by no means easy to devise a rale for estimating the profits of bee-cnlture, 
whether we regard the number of colonies or the number of square miles. He is 
not the best Apiarian who obtains the largest yield from a single hive, but keeps 
only one or two. By very judicious and careful management, a hundred colonies 
might yield a large profit, yet fall far short of what three hundred would have 
yielded in the same location and same season, with much less supervision and atten- 
tion. He is not the most successful farmer who produces the most extraordinary 
yield from a single rod of ground, but he who secures the amplest crops from an 
extensive area, well cultivated. The swarming system may be very advantageous 
in certain localities, in spite of its manifest wastefulness ; though, in other localities, 
it would, because of that unavoidable wastefulness, render bee-keeping a decidedly 
losing business, since the system involves a vast expenditure of honey for the pro- 
duction and maintenance of brood, which scarcely matures before it is doomed to 
the brimstone-pit, leaving to its owner often a smaller quantity of honey than the 
swarm would have produced if taken up three weeks after it was hived. 

" Confine the queen of an artificial swarm, so as to prevent her from depositing 
eggs in the combs, and the colony will, in a short time in the gathering season, 
accumulate much larger stores of honey than one whose queen is left at liberty, 
though equal in age and population. Thus, also, a colony having a very prolific 
queen, will, even in favorable seasons, lay up much less honey, unless ample store- 
room is given them, than one whose queen lays fewer eggs. From these and 
similar facts, which might be enumerated, it is evident that a very large number 
of particulars must be taken into consideration when endeavoring to form some 
general rule for estimating the profits of bee-culture."— Dzibrzon. 

The old-fashioned bee-keeper should know well the honey-resources of his 
district, in order to decide upon the best time for "taking up " his bees. If bees 
are smothered, it will be found decidedly advantageous to remove and destroy their 
queens, at least three weeks before taking their honey. In this way, the produc- 
tion of brood and consumption of honey will be checked, and the combs will be 
in a much better condition for melting. 



OVKK-STOCKING. 307 

the labor of superintendence, cost of hives, and interest 
on the capital invested. 

A careful man, who, with my hives, will begin bee-keep- 
ing on a prudent* scale, enlarging his operations as his 
skill and experience increase, will find, in any region 
w r here honey commands a good price, that the preceding 
estimate is a moderate one. In favorable localities, a much 
larger profit may be realized. 

* Bee-keepers cannot be too cautious in entering largely upon new systems of 
management, until they have ascertained, not only that they are good, but that 
they can make a good use of them. There is, however, a golden mean between the 
stupid conservatism that tries nothing new, and that rash experimenting, on an 
•xtravagant scale, which is so characteristic of the American people. 



308 THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

THE ANGER OF BEES REMEDIES FOR THEIR STINGS. 

The gentleness of bees, when properly managed, makes 
them wonderfully subject to human control. When 
gorged with honey, they may be taken up by handfuls, 
and suffered to run over the face, and may even have 
their glossy backs gently smoothed as they rest on our 
persons ; and all the feats of the celebrated Wildman may 
be safely imitated by experts, who, by securing the queen, 
can make the bees hang in large festoons from their chin, 
without incurring any risk of being taken by the beard. 

" Such was the spell, which round a Wildman's arm, 
Twm'd in dark wreaths the fascinated swarm ; 
Bright o'er his breast the glittering legions led, 
Or with a living garland bound his head. 
His dextrous hand, with firm yet hurtless hold, 
Could seize the chief, known by her scales of gold, 
Prune 'mid the wondering train her filmy wing, 
Or o'er her folds the silken fetter fling." 

M. Lombard, a skillful French Apiarian, narrates the 
following interesting occurrence, to show how peaceable 
bees are in swarming time, and how easily managed by 
those who have both skill and confidence : 

" A young girl of my acquaintance, who was much afraid of 
bees, was completely cured of her fear by the following incident: 
A swarm having come off, I observed the queen alight by herself 
at a little distance from the Apiary. I immediately called my little 
friend, that I might show her the queen ) she wished to see her 
more nearly ; so, after having caused her to put on her gloves, I 
gave the queen into her hand. We were in an instant surrounded 
by the whole bees of the swarm. In this emergency, I encouraged 



ANGER OF BEES. 



309 



the girl to be steady, bidding her be silent and fear nothing, and 
remaining myself close by her. I then made her stretch out her 
right hand, which held the queen, and covered her head and 
shoulders with a very thin handkerchief. The swarm soon fixed 
on her hand, and hung from it, as from the branch of a tree. 
The little girl was delighted above measure at the novel sight, 
and so entirely free from all fear, that she bade me uncover her face. 
The spectators were charmed with the interesting spectacle. At 
length I brought a hive, and, shaking the swarm from her hand, 
it was lodged in safety, and without inflicting a single wound." 

A practical acquaintance with the principles set forth in 
this Treatise, will render it unnecessary, under any cir- 
cumstances, to provoke to fury a colony of bees. When 
thoroughly aroused, hy the overturning, or violent jar« 




An Unfortunate Bee-ing. 



310 THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 

ing of their hive, or by the presence of a sweaty horse, 
or any offensive animal, they are terribly vindictive and 
severe, and even dangerous consequences may ensue. As 
our domestic animals may, by ill-treatment, be roused to 
such fury as to endanger our lives, so the most peaceful 
family of bees may be quickly taught to attack any living 
thing that approaches their domicile. 

When a colony of bees is unskillfully dealt with, they 
will M compass about " their assailant with savage feroc- 
ity ; and wo be to him, if they can creep up his clothes, or 
find a single unprotected spot on his person. He will 
fare as badly as the " Unfortunate JBee-ing^ so ludi- 
crously depicted in " Hood's Comic Sketches." 

Those who have much to do with bees, should wear a 
bee-hat, unless they are proof against the venom of their 
stings; for, while tens of thousands will continue their 
pursuits without annoying those who do not molest them, 
a few dyspeptic bees (p. 256), will come buzzing around 
their ears, determined to sting, without the slightest 
provocation. Even these, however, retain some touch of 
grace, amidst all their desperation. Like the scold, whose 
elevated voice gives timely warning to escape the sound of 
her tongue, so a bee bent on mischief, by raising its note 
far above the peaceable pitch, gives fair warning that 
danger is impending. Even then, if it has not been pro- 
voked to madness, it will seldom sting, unless it can plant 
its weapon on the face of its victim, and, if possible, near 
the eye ; for, like all the stinging tribe, it has an intuitive 
perception that this is the most vulnerable spot. If the 
head is quietly lowered, and the face covered with the 
hands, they will follow a person, often for rods, all the time 
sounding their war-note in his ears, and daring the sneak- 
ing fellow to allow them to catch but a glimpse of hia 
coward face. 



ANGER OF BEES. 311 

Cotton, quoting from Butler, who, in these remarks, 
follows mainly Columella, says : 

" Listen to the words of an old writer : — l If thou wilt have the 
favour of thy bees, that they sting thee not, thou must avoid such 
things as offend them : thou must not be unchaste or uncleanly ; 
for impurity and sluttiness (themselves being most chaste and 
neat) they utterly abhor ; thou must not come among them smell- 
ing of sweat, or having a stinking breath, caused either through 
eating of leeks, onions, garlick, and the like, or by any other 
means, the noisomeness whereof is corrected by a cup of beer , 
thou must not be given to surfeiting or drunkenness ; thou must 
not come puffing or blowing unto them, neither hastily stir among 
them, nor resolutely defend thyself when they seem to threaten 
thee ; but softly moving thy hand before thy face, gently put them 
by ; and lastly, thou must be no stranger unto them. In a word, 
thou must be chaste, cleanly, sweet, sober, quiet, and familiar; 
so will they love thee, and know thee from all others. When 
nothing hath angered them, one may safely walk along by them ; 
but if he stand still before them in the heat of the day, it is a 
marvel but one or other spying him. will have a cast at him.'* 

" Above all, never blowf on them ; they will try to sting directly, 
if you do. 

H If you want to catch any of the bees, make a bold sweep at 
them with your hand ; and if you catch them without pressing 
them, they will not sting. I have so caught three or four at a 
time. If you want to do anything to a single bee, catch him ' as 
if you loved him,' between your finger and thumb, where the tail 
joins on to the body, and he cannot hurt you." 

If a person is attacked by angry bees, not the slightest 

* Many persons imagine themselves to be quite safe, if they stand at a consider- 
able distance from the hives ; whereas, cross bees delight to attack those whose 
more distant position makes them a surer mark to their long-sighted vision, than 
persons who are close to their hives. 

t While bees resent the warm breath exhaled slowly from the lungs, I have 
ascertained, that they will run from a blast of cold air blown upon them by the 
mouth of the operator, almost as quickly as from smoke. Before employing smoke, 
I often used a pair of bellows. 



312 THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 

attempt should be made to act on the offensive ; for, if a 
single one is struck at, others will avenge the insult ; and 
if resistance is continued, hundreds, and at last, thousands, 
will join them. The assailed party should quickly retreat 
to the protection of a building, or, if none is near, should 
hide in a clump of bushes, and lie perfectly still, with his 
head covered, until the bees leave him. When no bushes 
are at hand, they will generally give over the attack, if he 
lies still on the grass, with his face to the ground. 

Those who are alarmed if a bee enters the house, or 
approaches them in the garden or fields, are ignorant of 
the important fact, that a bee at a distance from its hive^ 
?iever volunteers an attack. Even if assaulted, they seek 
only to escape, and never sting, unless they are hurt. 

If they were as easily provoked away from home, as 
when called to defend those sacred precincts, a tithe of 
the merry gambols in which our domestic animals indulge, 
would speedily bring about them a swarm of infuriated 
enemies ; we should no longer be safe in our quiet ram- 
bles among the green fields ; and no jocund mower could 
whet or swing his peaceful scythe, unless clad in a dress 
impervious to their stings. The bee, instead of being the 
friend of man, would, like savage wild beasts, provoke his 
utmost efforts for its extermination. 

Let none, however, take encouragement from the con- 
trast between the conduct of bees at home and abroad, to 
reserve all their pleasant ways for other places than the 
domestic roof; for, towards the members of its own family 
the bee is all kindness and devotion ; and while, among 
human beings, a mother is often treated by her own chil- 
dren with disrespect or neglect, among bees she is always 
waited upon with reverence and affection. 

It is true, that if any members of a colony become una- 
ble to perform their share of labor, they are dragged from 



Fig. 57. Plate XX. 




ANGER OF BEES. 313 

the hive by their pitiless companions. It is, however, a 
necessary law of their economy, that those who cannot 
work, shall not eat ; nor is there anything in the nature 
of a bee, that can be benefitted by nursing the sick, while 
the noblest traits of humanity are often developed by the 
incessant care bestowed upon the weak and helpless. 

Huber has demonstrated, that bees have an exceedingly 
acute sense of smell, and that unpleasant odors quickly 
excite their anger.* Long before his time, Butler said, 
" Their smelling is excellent, whereby, when they fly aloft 
into the air, they will quickly perceive anything under 
them that they like, even though it be covered." They 
have, therefore, a special dislike to those whose habits 
are not neat,f and who bear about them a perfume not in 
the least resembling 

41 Sabean odors 
From the spicy shores of Araby the blest." 

A sweaty horse is detested by bees, and, when assailed 
by them, is often killed ; as, instead of running away, like 
most other animals, it will plunge and kick until it falls 
overpowered. The Apiary should be fenced in, to prevent 
horses and cattle from molesting the hives. 

The sting of a bee, upon some persons, produces very 
painful, and even dangerous effects. I have often noticed 
that, while those whose systems are not sensitive to the 
venom, are rarely molested by bees, they seem to take a 
malicious pleasure in stinging those upon whom their 

* Strong perfumes, however pleasant to us, are disagreeable to bees ; and Aris- 
totle observes, that they will sting those scented with them. I have known per- 
sons ignorant of this fact to be severely treated by bees. 

t Some persons, however cleanly, are assaulted by bees as soon as they approach 
their hives. It is related of a distinguished Apiarian that, after a severe attaek 
of fever, he was never able to be on good terms with his bees. That they can 
readily perceive the slightest differences in smell, is apparent from the fact that any 
number of colonies, fed from a common vessel, will be gentle towards each other, 
while they will assail the first strange bee that alights on the feeder. 



314 THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEF. 

poison produces the most virulent effect. Something in 
the secretions of such persons may both provoke the 
attack and render its consequences more severe. 

The smell of their own poison produces a very irritating 
effect upon bees. A small portion of it offered to them 
on a stick, will excite their anger.* " If you are stung," 
says old Butler, " or any one in the company — yea, though 
a bee hath stricken but your clothes, especially in hot 
weather — you were best be packing as fast as you can, for 
the other bees, smelling the rank flavor of the poison, will 
come about you as thick as hail." 

REMEDIES FOR THE STING OF A BEE. 

If only a few of the host of cures, so zealously advo- 
cated, could be made effectual, there would be little 
reason to dread being stung. 

The first thing to be done after being stung, is to pull 
the sting out of the wound as quickly as possible. When 
torn from the bee, the poison-bag, and all the muscles 
which control the sting, accompany it ; and it penetrates 
deeper and deeper into the flesh, injecting continually 
more and more poison into the wound. If extracted at 
once, it will very rarely produce any serious consequences. 
After the sting is removed, the utmost care should be 
taken not to irritate the wound by the slightest rubbing. 
However intense the smarting, and the disposition to 
apply friction to the wound, it should never be done, for 
the moment that the blood is put into violent circulation, 
the poison is quickly diffused over a large part of the 
system, and severe pain and swelling may ensue. On 
' the same principle, by severe friction, the bite of a mos- 
quito, even after the lapse of several days, may be made 

* When bees thrust out their stings in a threaten ng manner, a minute drop of 
poison can be seen on their points, some of which is occasionally flirted into the 
eye of the Apiarian, and causes severe irritation. 






REMEDIES FOR THE STING OF A BEE. 315 



to swell again. As most of the popular remedies are 
rubbed in, they are worse than nothing. 

If the mouth is applied to the wound, unpleasant conse- 
quences may follow ; for, while the poison of snakes, 
affecting only the circulating system, may be swallowed 
with impunity, the poison of the bee acts with great power 
on the organs of digestion. Distressing headaches are 
often produced by it, as any one who has been stung or 
has tasted the poison, very well knows.* 

Mr. Wagner says : " The juice of the ripe berry of the 
common coral honeysuckle (Lonicera caprifolium) is the 
best remedy I have ever used for the sting of bees, wasps, 
hornets, &c. The berries or the expressed juice may be 
preserved in a bottle well closed, and will keep their 
efficacy more than a year." 

The milky juice of the white poppy is highly recom- 
mended. An old German writer states that it will instan- 
taneously allay the pain and prevent swelling. 

Others recommend the juice of tobacco as a sovereign 
panacea. Relief has unquestionably been found, by 
different persons, from each of these remedies, and there 
is as little reason to expect that one remedy will answer 
for all r as that the same disease can always be cured by 
the same medicines. 

In my own case, I have found cold water to be the best 
remedy for a bee-sting. The poison being very volatile, 
is quickly dissolved in it ; and the coldness of the water 
has also a powerful tendency to check inflammation. 

The leaves of the plantain, crushed and applied to the 
wound, are a very good substitute when water cannot at 

* An old writer says ; " If bees, when dead, are dried to powder, and given ts 
either man or beast, this medicine will often give immediate ease in the most 
excruciating pain, and remove a stoppage in the body when all other means have 
failed." A tea made by pouring boiling water upon bees has recently been pre- 
scribed, by high medical authority, for violent strangury ; while the poison of the 
bee, under the name of apis, is a great homoeopathic remedy. 



316 THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 

once be procured. Bevan recommends the use of spirits 
of hartshorn, and says that, in cases of severe stinging, 
its internal use is also beneficial.* 

Timid Apiarians, and all who suffer severely from the 
sting of a bee, should by all means protect themselves 
with a bee-dress. The great objection to such a dress, as 
usually made, is, that it obstructs clear vision, so highly 
important in all operations, besides producing such exces- 
sive heat and perspiration, as to make one using it pecu- 
liarly offensive to the bees. I prefer what I call a bee-hat 
(Plate XI., Fig. 25), of entirely novel construction. It is 
made of wire-cloth, the meshes of which are too fine to 
admit a bee, but coarse enough to allow a free circulation 
of air, and to permit distinct sight. The wire-cloth should 
be first sewed together like a hat, and made large enough 
to go very easily over the head ; its top may be of cotton 
cloth, and the same material should be fastened around its 
lower edge. If the top is made of sole leather, it will 
serve a better purpose. A piece of wire-cloth one foot 

* It may be some comfort to novices to know that the poison will produce less 
and less effect upon their system. Old bee-keepers, like Mithridates, appear almost 
to thrive upon poison itself. When I first became interested in bees, a sting was 
quite a formidable thing, the pain being often very intense, and the wound swelling 
bo as sometimes to obstruct my sight. At present, the pain is usually slight, and, 
if the sting is quickly extracted, no unpleasant consequences ensue, even if no 
remedies are used. Huish speaks of seeing the bald head of Bonner, a celebrated 
practical Apiarian, covered with stings, which seemed to produce upon him no un- 
pleasant effects. The Eev. Mr. Kleine advises beginners to suffer themselves to be 
stung frequently, assuring them that, in two seasons, their system will become 
accustomed to the poison ! 

An old English Apiarian advises a person who has been stung, to catch as speedily 
as possible another bee, and make it sting on the same spot. Even an enthusiastic 
disciple of Huber might hesitate to venture on such a singular homoeopathic 
Temedy ; but as this old writer had stated, what I had-verified in my own expe- 
rience, that the oftener a person was stung the less he suffered from the venom, I 
determined to make trial of his prescription. Allowing a sting to remain until it 
had discharged all its poison, I compelled another bee to insert its sting, as nearly as 
possible, in the same spot. I used no remedies of any kind, and had the satisfac- 
tion, in my zeal for new discoveries, of suffering more from the pain and swelling 
than for years before. 



REMEDIES FOR THE STING OF A BEE. 317 

wide, by two and a half feet long, will make a good fit 
for most persons. With such a hat, there is no danger 
from waspish bees, and its cape may be tucked under the 
coat, or so securely fastened, as to defy all assailants. 

The hands may be protected by india-rubber gloves, 
such as are now in common use. These gloves* while 
impenetrable to the sting of a bee, do not materially 
interfere with the operations of the Apiarian. As soon, 
however, as the bee-keeper acquires confidence and skill, 
he will much prefer to use nothing but the bee-hat, even 
at the expense of an occasional sting on his hands. If the 
bands are wet with honey, they will seldom be stung. 

Woolen gloves are objectionable, as everything rough 
or hairy has an extremely irritating influence upon bees. 
This is probably owing to the fact that, in a state of 
nature, bears, foxes, and other hairy animals, are their 
principal enemies. No sooner do they feel the touch of 
anything rough or hairy, than they dart out their stings. 

Butler says : " They use their stings against such things 
as have outwardly some offensive excrement, such as hair 
or feathers, the touch whereof provoketh them to sting. 
If they alight upon the hair of the head or beard, they 
will sting if they can reach the skin. When they are 
angry, their aim is most commonly at the face, but the 
bare hand, that is not hairy, they will seldom sting, unless 
they be much offended." 



318 THE HIYE AND HONEY-BEE. 



CHAPTER XIX. 

THE ITALIAN HONEY-BEE. 

Aristotle speaks of three different species of the honey- 
bee, as well known in his time. The best variety he des- 
cribes as " fxixpa, ^T^oyyuXv) xcu tfoixiX^j" — that is, small and 
round in size and shape, and variegated in color. 

Virgil (Georgicon, lib. IV,, 98) speaks of two kinds as 
flourishing in his time ; the better of the two, he thus 
describes : 

Elucent aliae, et fulgore coruscant, 
Ardentes auro, et paribus iita corpora guttis. 
Haec potior soboles ; hinc coeli tempore certo 
Dulcia mella premes." 

The better variety, it will be seen, he characterizes as 
spotted or variegated, and of a beautiful golden color. 

The attention of bee-keepers has recently been called to 
this variety of the honey-bee, which, after the lapse of 
more than two thousand years, still exists distinct and 
pure from the common kind. The following letter from 
Mr. Wagner will show the importance attached to this 
species, by some of the most skillful and successful Apia- 
rians in Europe : 

"York, Pa., August 5, 18 "6. 

" My Dear Sir : — The first account we have of the Italiau 
bees, as a distinct race or variety, is that given by Capt. Balden- 
stein, in the Bienenzeitung, 1848, p. 26.* Being stationed in 

* The Eev. E. W. Gilman, of Bangor Maine, has recently directed my attention 
to Spinola's " Insectorum Ligurice species novae aut rariores" from which it 
appears, that Spinola accurately described all the peculiarities of this bee, which he 
found in Piedmont, in 1805. He fully identified it with the bee described by Aris- 
totle, and calls it the Ligurian Bee, a name now very generally adopted in 
Europe 



THE ITALIAN BITE. 319 

Italy during part of the Napoleonic wars, he noticed that the bees, 
in the Lombardo-Venetian district of Valtelin, and on the borders 
of Lake Como, differed in color from the common kind, and seem- 
ed to be more industrious. At the close of the war, he retired 
from the army, and returned to his ancestral castle, on the Rhae- 
tian Alps, in Switzerland : and to occupy his leisure, had recourse 
to bee-culture, which had been his favorite hobby in earlier years. 
While studying the natural history, habits, and instincts of these 
insects, he remembered what he had observed in Italy, and resolved 
to procure a colony from that country. Accordingly, he sent two 
men thither, who purchased one. and carried it over the mountain, 
to his residence, in September, 1843. 

" In May, 1847, this colony, the queen of which had never failed 
to produce genuine Italian brood, began to show signs of weak- 
ness, but suddenly recovered in the following month ; and it was 
evident that it had supplied itself with a new queen, which had 
fortunately been impregnated by an Italian drone, as she produced 
genuine, or pure brood. On the 15th of May, 1848, this queen 
issued with a swarm, and he hoped that, as he had placed the 
parent-hive in a rather isolated location, her successor would be 
impregnated by an Italian drone. But in this, he was doomed to 
disappointment : she produced a bastard progeny, while the emi- 
grant queen produced genuine brood, as before. Similar disap- 
pointments awaited him from year to year; and in June, 1851, he 
possessed only one colony of the pure stock. 

" Among the points which he considered as definitely estab- 
lished, by his observations on the Italian bee, are the following : 
1. The queen, if healthy, retains her proper fertility at least three 
or four years. 2. The Italian bee is more industrious, and the 
queen more prolific, than the common kind ; because, in a most 
unfavorable year, when other colonies produced few swarms and 
little honey, his Italian colony produced three swarms, which 
filled their hives with comb, and, together with the parent-stock, 
laid up ample stores for Winter ; the latter yielding, besides, a 
box well filled with honey. The three young colonies were among 
the best in his Apiary. 3. The workers do not, at most, live 
longer than one year: for, though the beeu and brood in the 



320 THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 

parent-hive, when the first swarm and old queen left, were of the 
Italian stock exclusively, few of this kind remained in the Fall, 
and none survived the Winter. 4. The young queen is impreg- 
nated soon after she is established in a colony, and continues fer- 
tile during life. Were this not so, the genuine queens would not 
have continued to produce pure brood during those seven succes- 
sive years. 5. The queen leaves the hive to meet the drones. 
If not, it would scarcely have happened, that all the young queens 
bred in those seven years, with only one exception, were impreg- 
nated by common drones, and produced a bastard progeny. 6. The 
old queen regularly leaves with the first swarm, or the genuine 
Italian brood would not invariably have been the product'of the 
swarm, but occasionally, at least, of the parent colony, which 
never happened in all that time. 

" These observations and inferences impelled Dzierzon — who 
had previously ascertained that the cells of the Italian and com- 
mon bees were of the same size — to make an effort to procure the 
Italian bee ; and, by the aid of the Austrian Agricultural Society 
at Vienna,* he succeeded in obtaining, late in February, 1853, a 
colony from Mira, near Venice. On the following day, he trans- 
ferred the combs and bees into one of his own hives, and, when 
the season opened, placed the hive on a stand in his Apiary, and 
screwed it fast, that it might not be stolen. He never moved it 
during the ensuing Summer, but took from it combs with workei 
.and drone-brood, at regular intervals, supplying their place with 
empty comb. In this way, he succeeded in rearing nearly fifty 
young queens, about one-half of which were impregnated by Italian 
drones, and produced genuine brood. The other half produced a 
bastard progeny. He continued thus to multiply queens by the 
removal of brood, till the parent-stock, and several of his artificial 
colonies, suddenly killed off their drones, on the 25th ^of June. 
The bees of the original colony still labored very assiduously, but 

* Some of the Governments of Europe have recently taken great interest in dis- 
seminating among their people a knowledge of Dzierzon's system of Bee-Culture. 
Prussia furnishes annually a number of persons from different parts of the King- 
dom, with the means of acquiring a practical knowledge of this system ; while the 
•Bavarian Government hao prescribed instruction in Dzierzon's theory and practice 
of bee-culture, asa part of the regular course of studies in its teachers' Seminaries. 



THE ITALIAN BEE. 321 

gradually became less diligent, till when the buck- wheat came 
into blossom, they were surpassed in industry by many colonies 
of the common bees. But, as young bees continued to make their 
appearance he felt satisfied that the colony was in a healthy con- 
dition. Later in the season, he unfastened the hive, preparatory 
to putting it into winter quarters ; and on attempting to lift it, 
found he was scarcely able to move it. He now discovered why 
it had so greatly fallen behind the other colonies in industry. 
Having early rid itself of drones (as probably is done instinctively 
in Italy), it had, in consequence of its extraordinary activity, filled 
all the cells with honey, in a very short time, and was thencefor- 
ward doomed to involuntary idleness. It had attained a weight 
which scarcely any of his colonies reached in the Summer of 
1846, when pasturage was so superabundant; whereas, the Sum- 
mer of 1853 was a very ordinary one in this respect.* 

c '- ''The general diffusion of this species of bee/ says Dzierzon, 
k will form as marked an era in the bee-culture of Germany, as 
did the introduction of my improved hives. f The profit derived 
by the farmer from feeding stock, depends not alone on due atten- 
tion to the habits and wants of the animals, but mainly on the 

* u His experiments on this colony made it manifest, that frequent disturbance 
had not produced any injurious effect. Until Midsummer, he not only removed a 
brood-comb containing about 5000 cells, every other day, but had, on numerous 
other occasions, taken out comb after comb, several times a day, to find the queen, 
and show her to bee-keeping friends, who visited him. When, in consequence of 
such interruptions, the queen retreated to the opposite end of the hive, he usually 
found her, half an hour thereafter, on the same comb she had occupied before, 
engaged in laying eggs. Such disturbances, if the combs be not broken, or ma- 
terially damaged, he thinks, do no injury; but that, on the contrary they not 
unfrequently produce a certain excitement among the bees, which impels them to 
issue in greater numbers, and labor with increased assiduity." — S. Wagner. 

t After my application for a patent on the movable-frames 'was favorably 
decided upon, the Baron Von Berlepsch, of Seebach, Thuringia (see p. 126), invented 
frames of a somewhat similar character. Carl T. E. Von Siebold, Professor of 
Zoology and Comparative Anatomy, in the University of Munich, thus speaks of 
these frames : u As the lateral adhesion of the combs built down from the bars" 
{see pp. 15, 16 of this Treatise), "frequently rendered their removal difficult, 
Berlepsch tried to avoid this inconvenience, in a very ingenious way, by suspend- 
ing in his hives, instead of the bars, small quadrangular frames, the vacuity of 
which the bees fill up with their comb, by which the removal and suspension of 
the combs are greatly facilitated, and altogether such a convenient arrangement is 
Btiven to the Dzierzon-hive, that nothing more remains to be desired." 

14* 



322 THE HITE AND HONEY-BEE. 

character of the breed, itself. So also with the bee. We find 
marked differences in point of industry, even among our common 
bees; but the Italian bee surpasses these in every respect. A 
chief difficulty in the way of a more general attention to bee- 
culture, arises from the almost universal dread of the sting of this 
insect. Many fear even the momentary pain which it inflicts, 
though no other unpleasant consequences follow; but in some per- 
sons it causes severe and long-protracted swelling and inflamma- 
tion. This, especially, deters ladies from engaging in this pur- 
suit. All this can be avoided by the introduction of the Italian 
bee, which is by no means an irascible insect.* It will sting 
only when it happens to be injured, when it is intentionally 
annoyed, or when it is attacked by robbing bees : then it will 
defend itself with undaunted courage, and such are its extraordi- 
nary vigor and agility, that it is never overpowered, so long as the 
colony is in a normal condition. Colonies of common bees may 
speedily be converted into Italian stocks, by simply removing the 
queen from each, and, after the lapse of two or three days, or as 
soon as the workers decidedly manifest consciousness of the 
deprivation, supplying them with an Italian queen. We are 
thereby also enabled to note the gradual disappearance of the old 
race, as it becomes supplanted by the new. Besides the increased 
profit thus derivable from bee-culture, this species also furnishes 
us with no small gratification, in studying the nature, habits, and 
economy of the insect to greater advantage, because, by means of 
it, the most interesting experiments, investigations, and observa- 
tions may be instituted, and thus the remaining doubts and diffi- 
culties be cleared up. ? 

" He further says : * It has been questioned, even by experienced 
and expert Apiarians, whether the Italian race can be preserved in 
its purity, in countries where the common kind prevail. There 
need be no uneasiness on this score. Their preservation could be 
accomplished, even if natural swarming had to be relied on, 
because they swarm earlier in the season than the common kind, 

* Spinola speaks of the more peaceable disposition of this bee ; and Columella, 
1800 years ago, had noticed the same peculiarity, describing it as " mitior morU 
"bus." Both its superior industr and peaceableness have been noticed from the 
earliest ages. 



THE ITALIAN BEE. 323 

and also more frequently. Captain Baldenstein's want of success 
was most probably the result of a deficiency of drone-comb* in his 
Italian hives, as a consequence of which, only few drones were 
produced.' 

4 - The main thing to be attended to in any localities where 
common bees are found or kept, is to secure the production of 
drones in numbers overwhelmingly large; though Dzierzon is 
under the impression, that where both kinds of drones exist in 
about equal numbers, the Italian queens will usually encounter 
Italian drones, both queens and drones being more active and 
agile than the common kind. Besides, the wings of both queens 
and drones are finer and more delicate than those of the common 
kind, and the sounds produced in flying are clearer and higher- 
toned. Hence, probably, they are feadily able to distinguish each 
other when on the wing.f 

u The Baron of Berlepsch, one of the most enthusiastic and 
skillful Apiarians, on a large scale, in Germany, says he can, from 
his own experience confirm the statements of Dzierzon, in relation 
to the Italian bee, having found, 

* ** Dzierzon guarded against this, by giving to a very large colony, which ordi- 
narily produced drones in great numbers, a fertile queen very early in the season. 
Thousands of drones soon made their appearance, and he immediately formed an 
artificial colony by removing this queen, with a sufficient number of workers, 
adding worker-brood from other colonies. On the twelfth day following, he heard 
a young queen * teeting ' in the parent hive and, to his surprise, a large swarm 
issued from it on the same day, though the weather was then cool and cloudy. This 
swarm came forth suddenly, without any previous indication of its intention, just 
as after-swarms usually do. On a similar day, Dzierzon says, he had never seen a 
first swarm of common bees leave. So cold was the weather, that some of the bees 
became chilled before the swarm was hived. As the swarm was unusually large, 
he divided it into two, as he was able to procure an additional queen from the 
parent hive. Both throve well, and each of the queens was impregnated by an 
Italian drone. From this occurrence, he judged that these bees have an instinctive 
proclivity to swarm early. Our common kind would have lingered long, rather 
than ' swarm in weather so cold and cloudy/ m — S. Wagner. 

t " If, at the time when young queens are emerging, the bees and drones be 
tempted to sally out earlier than usual in the day, hours before the common drones 
come forth, by feeding them with diluted honey, the perpetuation of the genuine 
Dreed will the more probably be secured. But this end will the most certainly be 
attained, if measures are taken to have Italian queens and drones bred early in the 
season, before the common drones make their appearance ; and again late, after the 
latter haye been ' killed off.' This may roadily be done by the improved hive, and 
the application of certnin known principles in bee-culture.' 11 — S. Wagner. 



324 THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 

"1. That the Italian hees are less sensitive to cold than the 
common kind. 2. That their queens are more prolific. 3. That 
the colonies swarm earlier and more frequently, though of this he 
has less experience than Dzierzon. 4. That they are less apt to 
siing. Not only are they less apt, but scarcely are they inclined 
to sting, though they will do so if intentionally annoyed or irri- 
tated. 5. That they are more industrious. Of this fact he had 
but one Summer's experience, but all the results and indications 
go to confirm Dzierzon's statements, and satisfy him of the 
superiority of this kind in every point of view. 6. That they are 
more disposed to rob than common bees, and more courageous and 
active in self-defence. They strive on all hands to force their 
way into colonies of common bees ; but when strange bees attack 
their hives, they fight with great fierceness, and with an incredible 
adroitness.^ 

u From one Italian queen sent him by Dzierzon, Berlepsch suc- 
ceeded in obtaining, in the ensuing season, one hundred and thirty- 
nine fertile young queens, of which number about fifty produced 
pure Italian progeny .f 

u Busch (Die Honig-biene, Gotha, 1855) describes the Italian 
bee as follows : ' The workers are smooth and glossy, and the 
color of their abdominal rings is a medium between the pale 
yellow of straw and the deeper yellow of ochre. These rings have 
a narrow black edge or border, so that the yellow (which might 

* Spinola speaks of these bees as " velociores moW — quicker in their motions 
than the common bees. 

t " It is a remarkable fact that an Italian queen, impregnated by a common drone 
and a common queen impregnated by an Italian drone, do not produce workers 
of a uniform intermediate cast, or hybrids ; but some of the workers bred from 
the eggs of each queen will be purely of the Italian, and others as purely of the 
common race, only a few of them, indeed, being apparently hybrids. Berlepsch 
also had several bastardized queens, which at first produced Italian workers exclu- 
sively, and afterwards common workers as exclusively. Some such queens pro- 
duced fully three-fourths Italian workers ; others, common workers in the same 
proportion. Nay, he states that he had one beautiful orange-yellow bastardized 
Italian queen which did not produce a single Italian worker, but only common 
workers, perhaps a shade lighter in color. The drones, however, produced by a 
bastardized Italian queen are uniformly of the Italian race, and this fact, besides 
demonstrating the truth of Dzierzon's theory, renders the preservation and per- 
petuation of the Italian race, in its puritv, entirely feasible in any country where 
\hpY may be introduced.'* — S. Wagner. 



I 



THE ITALIAN BEE. 325 

be called leather-colored) constitutes the ground, and is seemingly 
barred over by these slight black edges, or borders. This is most 
distinctly perceptible when a brood-comb, on which bees are 
densely crowded, is taken out of a hive. The drones differ from 
the workers in having the upper half of their abdominal rings 
black, and the lower half an ochry-yellow, thus causing the 
abdomen, when viewed from above, to appear annulated. The 
queen differs from the common kind chiefly in the greater bright- 
ness and brilliancy of her colors.' 

c: Otto Radlkofer, Jr., of Munich, in a communication to the 
Bienenzeitung. says that a colony of Italian bees, which he trans- 
ferred in February, began to build new comb before the middle of 
March, while his common bees had not, at the date of his commu- 
nication (the last of April), begun to build any new comb. ' Not 
only, 7 says Mr. Radlkofer, ' are the Italian bees distinguished by 
an earlier-awakened impulse to activity and labor, but they are 
remarkable also for the sedulous use they make of every opening 
flower, visiting some on which common bees are seldom or never 
seen. They have also demonstrated their superior agility in self- 
defence • nay, they would not tolerate the presence of other bees 
on comb that had been strewed with flour for their common use. 
In all these respects, the palm of superiority must be awarded to 
the Italian bee.' 

u Considerable difficulty has been encountered, even by expe- 
rienced Apiarians, in inducing a colony of common bees, deprived 
of its queen, to accept an Italian queen in its stead, and many 
failures have occurred, involving the loss of the offered queen, 
and causing grievous disappointment. The safest course appears 
to be, to remove the queen several days before the substitution is 
intended to be made, and to destroy all the royal cells and 
embryo queens the day before the Italian queen is introduced. 
At the time of her introduction, the combs should again be 
thoroughly examined, and, if any more royal cells have been 
Etarted, they must likewise be destroyed. The Italian queen 
should be placed in a cage for her protection, and a small 
quantity of pure honey in open cells should be put in the cage. 
The conduct of the workers will speedily show whether and when 



326 THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 

they will receive her. Mr. Lange advises that the Italian queen 
be introduced immediately after the bees of a deprived colony 
manifest undoubted consciousness of the loss they have sustained, 
and before they have started any royal cells, or made arrangements 
for doing so. — Yours truly, Samuel Wagner. ?; 

" Rev. L. L. Langstroth." 

The chief obstacle to the rapid diffusion of this valuable 
variety has been the difficulty experienced by the ablest 
German Apiarians in preserving the breed pure, even 
Berlepsch having failed entirely to do so. By means of 
my non-swarmer, however, this difficulty may be readily 
overcome. 

Let the bee-keeper who obtains an Italian queen in the 
Spring, give her, with proper precautions (p. 200), to a 
populous colony, whose hive is well furnished with drone- 
combs, having first deprived it of its queen. When 
the drone cells are filled with sealed brood, let nuclei 
(p. 189) be formed from this stock, and replace the combs 
removed, with others containing workers ready to hatch. 
By thus keeping the parent-stock always populous, a 
large number of nuclei may be formed from it. Just 
before the young Italian queens mature, adjust the non- 
swarmer (Plates II., V., Figs. 5, 17) to all the hives con- 
taining common drones, so as to shut them in, while free 
egress is given to queens and workers. As only the drones 
bred by the Italian queen have their liberty, all the young 
females will be fertilized by them. As fast as the queens 
of the nuclei become fertile, they may be given to the 
various stocks, and from these, in a short time, other 
nuclei which will raise Italian queens, maybe formed. In 
this way, an expert, who can be sure of having Italian 
drones until late in the season, might easily convert an 
Apiary of a thousand or more hives into stocks containing 
none but the new variety. 



THK ITALIAN BEE. 327 

To secure the requisite number of drones, part of the 
Italian drone-brood should be given to some of the nuclei, 
so that, in case the parent-stock kills its drones, others 
may be on hand. If the Apiarian removes the queen 
from this colony before the drones are killed, the bees 
will tolerate their presence much longer. The same 
object may also be accomplished by liberal feeding as 
soon as natural forage fails (p. 224). 

Dzierzon found that a queen which had been refri- 
gerated for a long time, after being brought to life by 
warmth, laid only male eggs, whilst previously she had 
also laid female eggs. Berlepsch refrigerated three 
queens by placing them thirty-six hours in an ice-house,* 
two of which never revived, and the third laid, as before, 
thousands of eggs, but from cdl of them only males were 
evolved. In two instances, Mr. Mahan has, at my sug- 
gestion, tried similar experiments, and with like results. 
It does not seem to have occurred to the German 
Apiarians that by this refrigerating process we may 
secure as many Italian drones as we need. All that is 
necessary is to convert by it one or more of the queens 
of the nuclei into drone-layers. The reception of an 
Italian queen quite late in the season may thus be turned 
. to good account. 

If the Apiarian is in the vicinky of hives to which he 
cannot apply the non-swarmer, it will be necessary for 
him to seek some place where the common drones cannot 
interfere with his proceedings. Unless the breed is kept 
pure, the advantages proposed by its introduction cannot 
be secured. 

Italian queens may be safely sent in my hives to any 
part of the country. A hive for this purpose should be 

* A short exposure of a queen to pounded ice and salt, will answer every pur- 
pose. The sDermatozoids are in some way rendered inoperative bv severe cold. 



328 THE niVK AND HONEY-BEE. 

made to hold only one comb, which ought to be old and 
very securely fastened. Into such a hive, suitably pro- 
visioned, an Italian queen may be introduced, with a few 
hundred bees to keep her company, and, if sufficient ven- 
tilation is given, with a little water daily, they will bear a 
journey of many days. If received at a season unsuit- 
able for rearing new queens, she may be given to some 
strong colony and reserved for future operations. 

It is hardly necessary to say, that a species of the 
honey-bee so much more productive than the common 
kind, and so much less sensitive to cold, w T ill be of very great 
value to all sections of our country.* Its superior docility 
would make it worthy of high regard, even if in other 
respects it had no peculiar merits. Its introduction into 
this country will, it is confidently believed, constitute a 
new era in bee-keeping, and impart an interest to its pur- 
suit which will enable us, ere long, to vie with any part 
of the world in the production of honey. 

* An attempt was made, in 1855, by Mr. Wagner, to import the Italian bees, but, 
unfortunately, the colonies perished on the voyage. Mr. Richard Colvin, of Balti- 
more, Mr. Wagner, and myself, have made arrangements to have them brought to 
this country this Spring (1859). 




SIZE OF HIVES. 329 



CHAPTER XX. 

SIZE, SHAPE, AND MATERIALS FOR HIVES OBSERVING HIVES. 

Notwithstanding the almost innumerable experiments 
which have been made to determine the best size, shape, 
and materials for bee-hives, the ablest practical Apiarians 
are still at variance on these points. In most districts in 
this country, it is pretty generally agreed that hives hold- 
ing less than a bushel, in the main apartment, are not 
profitable in the long run. As regards, however, the size, 
both of the main hive and the apartments for spare honey, 
so much depends on seasons and localities, and on whether 
the bees swarm or not, that no rule, applicable to all cases, 
can be given. Every bee-keeper must determine these 
questions by reference to the honey-resources of his own 
district. As the plan of my hives admits of their being 
enlarged and again contracted, without destruction or 
alteration of existing parts, the size, either of the main 
hive or surplus storage room, may be varied at pleasure. 

Being able to remove any surplus, I prefer to make the 
interior of my hives considerably larger than a bushel. 
Many hives cannot hold one-quarter of the bees, comb, 
and honey which, in a good season, may be found in my 
large hives ; while their owners wonder that they obtain 
so little profit from their bees. A good swarm of bees, 
put, in a good season, into a diminutive hive, may be com- 
pared to a powerful team of horses harnessed to a baby 
wagon, or a noble fall of water wasted in turning a petty 
water-wheel. 

A hive tall in proportion to its other dimensions, has 
some obvious advantages; for, as bees are disposed to 



330 THE HIVE AND HONEY-BFE. 

carry their stores as far as possible from the entrance, 
they will fill its upper part with honey, using the lower 
part mainly for brood, thus escaping the danger of being 
caught, in cold weather, among empty ranges of comb, 
while they still have honey uneonsumed. If the top of • 
this hive, like that of an old-fashioned churn, is made (on 
the Polish plan) considerably smaller than the bottom, it 
will be better adapted to a cold climate, besides being 
more secure against high winds. Such a hive is deficient 
in top-surface for the storing of honey in boxes, and it 
would be impossible to use frames* in it to any advantage ; 
but, to those who prefer to keep bees on the old plan,f 
one of this shape, made to hold not less than a bushel and 
a half, is decidedly the best. 

A hive long from front to rear, and moderately low 
and narrow, seems, on the whole, to unite the most 
advantages. Such a hive resembles a tall one, laid upon 
its side, and, while affording ample top-surface for surplus 
honey, it greatly facilitates the handling of the frames, 
besides diminishing their number and cost.J 

* The deeper the frames, the more difficult it is to make them hang true on the 
rabbets, and the greater the difficulty of handling them without crushing the bees 
or breaking the combs. 

t It is instructive to see how the very first departure from the olden way proves 
the truth, in bee-culture at least, of the hackneyed quotation : 
" A little knowledge is a dangerous thing." 

Even so simple an improvement as that of top-boxes will, as used by many, 
eventually destroy their bees ; for, while in favorable years such boxes may be 
safely removed, in others the surplus honey which they contain, is the life of 
the bees. 

X Mr. M. Quinby, of St. Johnsville, New York, in calling my attention to some 
stocks, which he had purchased in box hives of this shape, informed me that bees 
wintered in them about as well as in tall hives, the bees drawing tack among their 
stores in cold weather, just as in tall hives they draw up among them. My hive, 
as at first constructed, was fourteen and one-eighth inches from front to rear, 
eighteen and one-eighth inches from side to side, and nine inches deep, holding 
twelve frames. Aft§* Mr. Quinby called my attention to the wintering of bees in 
his long box-hives, I constructed one that measured twenty-four inches from front 
to rear, twelve inches from side to side, and ten inches deep, holding eight frames. 



MATERIALS OF HIVES. 831 

The common Dzierzon hive* is long and flat, but, as 
the combs run fom side to side, instead of from front to 
rear, the bees, unless the hive is uncommonly well pro- 
tected, will suffer from cold in Winter. As the German 
Apiarian uses slats instead of frames, it would be incon- 
venient for him to remove any very long combs from his 
hive. 

The variety of opinions respecting the best materials 
for hives, has been almost as great as on the subject of 
their proper size and shape. Columella and Virgil recom- 
mend the hollowed trunk of the cork tree, than which 
no material would be more admirable if it could only be 
cheaply procured. Straw hives have been used for ages, 
and are warm in Winter and cool in Summer. The diffi- 
culty of making them take and retain the proper shape 
for improved bee-keeping, is an insuperable objection to 
their use. Hives made of wood are. at the present time, 
fast superseding all others. The lighter and more spongy 
the wood, the poorer will be its power of conducting 
heat, and the warmer the hive in Winter and the cooler 
in Summer.f Cedar, bass-wood, poplar, tulip-tree, and 
soft pine, afford excellent materials for bee-hives. The 
Apiarian must be governed, in his choice of lumber, by 
the cheapness with which any suitable kind can be ob- 
tained in his own immediate vicinity. 

I have since preferred to make my hives eighteen and one-eighth inches from front 
to rear, fourteen and one-eighth inches from side to side, and ten inches deep. Mr. 
Quinby prefers to make my movable frames longer and deeper. 

* Dzierzon builds hives in structures for two, four, and even many more colonies. 

On Plate XXII., Fig. 71 (,the Frontispiece to the first edition of my work), I have 

j given a representation of a triple hive. The little that can be saved in the first 

cost of such hives, seems to me to be more than lost by the great inconvenience of 

handling them. 

t Mr. Wagner informs me that Scholz, a German Apiarian, recommends hives 
made of adobe — in which frames or slats may be used — as cheaply constructed, and 
admirable for Summer and Winter. Such structures, however, cannot be moved. 
But in many parts of our country, where both lumber and saw-mills are scarce,, 
and where people are accustomed to build adobe houses, they might prove desir* 
able. The material is plastic clay, mixed with cut straw, waste tow, &c. 



332 THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 

Aseiious disadvantage attaching to all kinds of wooden 
hives, is the ease with which they conduct heat, causing 
them to become cold and damp in Winter, and, if exposed 
to the sun, so hot in Summer as often to melt the combs. 
The Winter inconveniences are greatly increased if the 
hives are well painted, while, if this is neglected, they 
cannot ordinarily be exposed to sun or weather without 
serious injury * 

To make the movable-comb hives to the best advan- 
tage, the frames at least should be cut out by a circular 
saw, driven by steam, water, or horse-power. In build- 
ings where such saws are used, the frames may be made 
from the small pieces of lumber, seldom of any use, except 
for fuel, and may be packed almost solid in a box, or in a 
hive which will afterwards serve for a pattern. One 
frame in such a box, properly nailed together, will serve 
as a guide for the rest. The other parts of the hive can 
easily and cheaply be made by any one who can handle 
tools, and can never be profitably manufactured to be sent 
far, unless made where lumber is cheap, and the parts 
closely packed, to be put together after reaching their 
destination. 

MOVABLE-COMB OBSERVING HIVES. 

Each comb in these hives is attached to a movable 
frame, and, as both sides admit of inspection, all the won- 
ders of the bee-hive may be exposed to the light of day, 
as well as that of (pp. 23, 116) lamps and gas. 

In the common ob serving-hive, experiments are con- 
ducted only by cutting away parts of the comb ; whereas, 
in this, they can be performed by the simple removal of 
a frame ; and if a colony becomes reduced in numbers, it 

* The abundant ventilation now given to my hives, will enable the Apiarian to 
dispense with paint, except on the joints and roofs ; and if the latter are, in Summer, 
covered with straw, battened to them so that the air can circulate under it, they 
may be safely placed in the sun, if not exposed to a close, suffocating heat. 



OBSERVING HIVES. 333 

j be recruited, in a few minutes, by giving it maturing 

ood from another hive.* 

These observing-hives may be constructed to accommo 
date a full swarm. I do not, however, recommend such 
a hive for ordinary purposes, but one holding only a sin- 
gle frame (PL IV., Figs. 14, 15), which, while it gratifies 
curiosity, admits of easy control, and requires only a few 
bees to be diverted from more profitable hives. 

A parlor observing-hive of this form may be conveni- 
ently placed in any room in the house — the alighting- 
board being outside, and the whole arrangement such 
that the bees may be inspected at all hours, day, or night, 
without the slightest risk of their stinging. Two such 
hives may be placed before one window, and put up or 
taken down in a few minutes, without cutting or defacing 
the wood-work of the house. In one, the queen may 
always be shown, and in the other, the process of rearing 
young queens from worker-eggs. These miniature hives 
may be stocked in the same way that a nucleus is formed, 
or a small after-swarm may be hived in them. 

An observing-hive will prove an unfailing source of 
pleasure and instruction ; and those who live in crowded 
cities, may enjoy it to the full, even if condemned to the 
penance of what the poet has so feelingly described as an 
" endless meal of brick." The nimble wings of these agile 
gatherers will quickly waft them above and beyond " the 
smoky chimney-pots ;" and they will bear back to their 
city homes the balmy spoils of many a rustic flower, 
"blushing unseen," in simple loveliness. Might not their 

* A writer, in a description of the different hives exhibited at the World's Fair, 
n London, laments that no method has yet been devised, to enable bees to cluster, 
m cold weather, in an observing-hive, so as to preserve them alive in Winter, even 
m the moderate climate of Great Britain. By the use of movable frames, this 
.lifficulty can be easily obviated, as, on the approach of cold weather, the frames, 
<vith the bees, may be put into a suitable hive, and returned in the Spring to their 
>ld abode. 



334 THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 

pleasant murmurings awaken in some the memory of 
long-forgotten joys, when the happy country child listened 
to their soothing music, while intently watching them in 
the old homestead-garden, or roved with them amid pas- 
tures and hill-sides, to gather the flowers still rejoicing in 
their " meadow-sweet breath," or whispering of the 
precious perfumes of their forest home ! 

" To me more dear, congenial to my heart, 
One native charm than all the gloss of art ; 
Spontaneous joys, where nature has its play, 
The soul adopts and owns their first-born sway ; 
Lightly they frolic o'er the vacant mind, 
Unenvied, unmolested, unconfined. 
But the long pomp, the midnight masquerade, 
With all the freaks of wanton wealth array'd, 
In these, ere triflers half their wish obtain, 
The toilsome pleasure sickens into pain ; 
And e'en while fashion's brightest art? decoy, 
The heart distrusting asks, if this be joy." 

Goldsmith. 



WINTERING BEES. 335 



CHAPTER XXI. 

WINTERING BEES. 

As soon as frosty weather arrives, bees cluster com- 
pactly together in their hives, to keep warm. They are 
never dormant, like wasps and hornets (p. 110), and a 
thermometer pushed up among them will show a Summer 
temperature, even when, in the open air, it is many 
degrees below zero. When the cold becomes intense, 
they keep up an incessant tremulous motion, in order to 
develop more heat by active exercise ; and, as those on 
the outside of the cluster become chilled, they are re- 
placed by others. 

As all muscular exertion requires food to supply the 
waste of the system, the more quiet bees can be kept, the 
less they will eat. It is, therefore, highly important to 
preserve them, as far as possible, in Winter, from every 
degree, either of heat or cold, which will arouse them to 
great activity. 

The usual mode of allowing them to remain all Winter 
on their Summer stands, is, in cold climates, very objec- 
tionable. In those parts of the country, however, where 
the cold is seldom so severe as to prevent them from 
flying, at frequent intervals, from their hives, perhaps no 
better way, all things considered, can be devised. In 
such favored regions, bees are but little removed from 
their native climate, and their wants may be easily sup- 
plied, without those injurious effects which commonly 
result from disturbing them when the weather is so cold 
as to confine them entirely to their hives. 

If the stocks are to be wintered in the open air, the} 



336 THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 

should all be made populous, and rich in stores, even if tc 
do it requires the number of colonies to be reduced ono- 
half, or more.* The bee-keeper who has ten strong 
stocks in the Spring, will, by judicious management with 
movable-comb hives, be able to close the season with a 
larger Apiary than one who begins it with thirty, or more, 
feeble colonies. 

If two or more colonies, which are to be united in the 
Fall, are not close together, their hives must be gradually ' 
approximated (p. 280), and the bees may then, with 
proper precautions (p. 203), be put into the same hive. 

If the central combs of the hive are not well stored 
with honey, they should be exchanged for such as are, so 
that, when the cold compels the bees to recede from the 
cuter combs, they may cluster among their stores. If the 
fullest honey-combs are not of worker size, the caps of 
their cells may be sliced off, and the combs put in the 
upper apartment, where the bees can remove the honey, 
and store it in the centre of the hive. In districts where 
bees gather hut little honey in the Fall, such precautions, 
in cold climates, will be specially needed, as, often, after 
breeding is over, their central combs will be almost 
empty. 

As bees are natives of a warm climate, they do not 
instinctively place their honey where it will be most acces- 
sible to them in cold weather, but simply where it will 
least interfere with the raising of brood. Neither, if, while 
the weather is warm, they can easily communicate through 
the combs of the hive, can they be depended on to make 
such passages through them, as will allow them to pass 
readily, in cold weather, from one to another. 

* Small colonies consume, proportionally much more food than large ones, and 
often perish from inability \,o maintain sufficient heat. Stocks should not, how- 
ever, be made over-populous, as their great internal heat would create restlessness, 
and engender dysentery, by leading to an inordinate consumption of food (p. 256). 



WINTERING BEES. 337 

The Apiarian, should, therefore, late in the Fall, cut, 
with a pen-knife, a hole, an inch in diameter, in the centre 
of each comb, about one-third from the top.* 

Great care should be taken to shelter hives from the 
piercing winds, which in Winter so powerfully exhaust 
the animal heat of the bees ; for, like human beings, if 
sheltered from the wind, they will endure a low tem- 
perature far better than a continuous current of very 
much warmer air.f 

In some parts of the West, where bees suffer much 
from cold winds, their hives are protected, in Winter, by 
sheaves of straw, fastened so as to defend them from both 
cold and wet. With a little ingenuity, fanners might 
easily turn their waste straw to a valuable account in 
sheltering their bees. 

If the colonies are wintered in the open air, the 
entrance to their hives must be large enough to allow 
the bees to fly at pleasure. Many, it is true, will be lost, 
but a large part of these are diseased ; and, even if they 
were not, it is better to lose some healthy bees than to 
incur the risk of losing, or greatly injuring, a whole 

* If these holes are made before they feel the need of them, they will frequently 
close them. Mr. Wm. W. Cary (p. 204) has invented a process of making these 
holes -without removing the combs. He makes a hole in the side of the hive, 
which, when not in use, is covered with a button or plug (PL V., Fig. 16), through 
which he slowly worms an instrument in the shape of a Jlour or butter-taster 
(sharpened at the end), until it strikes' the opposite side of the hive. By this 
process of making the Winter passages, only a very few bees are hurt. As the 
queen always runs away from danger, she is not liable to be hurt. An application 
for a patent on this device is now pending. If the patent issues, the right to use it 
will be free to all owning the right to use the movable-comb hive. 

I strongly advise every one using my hives to make Winter passages for their 
bees. As the frames touch neither the top, bottom, nor sides of the hives, the bece 
have such extraordinary facilities for intercommunication, that they cannot be 
depended on to leave any holes in their combs. 

t The Winter of 1855-6 will long be remembered, not only for the uncommon 
degree and duration of its cold, but for the tremendous winds, which, often for 
days together, swept like a Polar tornado over the land. Apiaries standing in 
exposed situations were, in many instances, nearly ruined. 

15 



338 THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 

colony by the excitement created by confining them when 
the weather is warm enough to entice them abroad.* 

The best Apiarians are still at variance as to how much 
air should be given to bees in Winter, and whether hives 
should have upward ventilation, or not. If the hives have 
no upward ventilation, then I believe that they need as 
much, or even more, air, than in Summer. If upward 
ventilation is given, the smaller the lower openings the 
better, as it is not desirable that there should be a. strong 
current of cold air passing through the hives. 

In my hives, all the lower passages can easily be closed 
air-tight, and the bees allowed to go in and out through 
the Winter-entrance, which is made at the top of the 
hive (PI. L, Fig. 1 ; PL V., Fig. I7).f 

If the hive has an upper box-cover, as in PL III., Fig. 
9, the holes in the honey-board must be left open, or 
closed only with wire-cloth, that the dampness, which would 
otherwise condense or freeze on the combs and interior 
walls of the hive, may escape without injuring the bees. 

If an upper hive, as in Plate V., Fig. 16, is placed on 
the top of the one in which the bees are wintered, its 
roof should be slightly elevated, to allow the escape of 
moisture. If a single hive, like that in Plate I., Fig. 1, or 
Plate V., Fig. 17, is used, the same opening must be 
allowed for the escape of dampnessj. 

* If the sun is warm and the ground covered with new-fallen snow, the light 
may so blind the bees, that they will fall into this fleecy snow, and quickly perish. 
At such times, it would probably be best to confine them to their hives. If the 
snow is hard enough to bear up a healthy bee, it is seldom lost, unless tempted to 
fly by the sun shining full upon its hive as it stands in a sheltered place. 

t The lower entrance may be closed in the Fall, Avhile the bees are still flying, 
and they will quickly accustom themselves to the upper one. Mr. Wheaton sug- 
gests making this Winter-entrance in the back of the hive, and in the Fall revers- 
ing the pile, stand and all. This entrance is merely proposed for trial. 

X Small strips of wood, one-eighth of an inch thick, may be placed between the 
sides of the hive and the under-surfacc of the roof, and, when the roof is securely 
fastened, the dampness can escape from the front and rear of the hive, where th* 
openings are sheltered by the clamps, from the snow and rain. 



WINTERING BEES. 339 

As facts observed have a value far above theories, I 
shall give the substance of numerous observations made 
by me, at Greenfield, Massachusetts, in the Winter of 
1856-7, on wintering bees in the open air : 

Jan. 9th, 1857. — Examined a number of stocks with 
Winter-passages in their combs, and with all the holes in 
their honey-board uncovered. The previous month had 
been extremely cold, and, for three days before the exami- 
nation, the thermometer had been one-half of the time 
below zero, and only once ten above, the wind blowing an 
almost continuous gale. In none of these hives could I find 
any frost or dampness, or any bees killed by being caught 
away from the main body of the colony. In a tempera- 
ture below zero, they would rush up from their combs on 
the slightest jar of their hives, rapidly pouring through 
the Winter-passages, and showing their ability to reach 
any of their stores.* In a few colonies, to which no up- 
ward ventilation had been given, the interior walls of the 
hive, and many of the combs were coated with frost. 

Jan. 14th. — Carefully examined three hives. No. 1, 
made of boards seven-eighths of an inch thick, had stood 
with its honey-board removed, the same as would show 
by removing (/) in Plate HI., Fig. 9. It had a good stock 
of bees, and, although the mercury in the morning was 
1(H° below zero, there was scarcely any frost in the hive. 
The bees were dry and lively, and the central combs con- 
tained eggs and unsealed brood. No. 2 contained an 
equally strong stock, in a thin hive holding eighteen 
frames, ten of which (five on each side) had no combs. 
This hive had no upward ventilation, and was very frosty. 

* On a cold November day, I have found bees, in a hive without any Winter- 
passages, separated from the main cluster, and so chilled as not to be able to move ; 
while, with the thermometer many degrees below zero, I have repeatedly noticed, 
in other hives, at one of the holes made in the comb, a cluster, varying in size, 
tea ?y to rush out at the slightest jar of their hive. 



340 THE HIVE AOT) HONEY-BEE. 

The central combs had eggs and unsealed brood. No. 3 
was most thoroughly protected by double sides, filled in 
with charcoal, and all the holes in its honey-board were left 
open. It had a little frost, as No. 1. and its central combs 
contained eggs and some sealed brood. Although it had 
a better stock of bees than either of the others, it ap- 
pealed to have begun to breed only a few days earlier. 

Jan. 30th. — This month has been the coldest on record 
for more than fifty years. My hives have been exposed 
to a temperature of 30° below zero, and for forty-eight 
hours together the wind blew a strong gale, and the mer- 
cury rose only once to 6° below zero. No. 1 was again 
examined, and the bees found in good condition. The 
central comb was almost filled with sealed brood, nearly 
mature ; all the combs were free from mould, and the 
interior of the hive was dry. In a hive as well protected 
as No. 3, but which had no upward ventilation, the 
vapor, or breath of the bees, which had frozen in it, having 
melted in consequence of a sudden thaw, both combs and 
bees were in a wretched condition. 

As long as the vapor remains congealed, it can only 
injure the bees by keeping them from stores which they 
need ; but, as soon as a thaw sets in, hives which have no 
upward ventilation are in danger of being ruined.* 

Mr. E. T. Sturtevant, of East Cleveland, Ohio, so widely 
known as an experienced Apiarian, in a letter to me, thus 
gives his experience in wintering bees in the open air : 

" No extremity of cold that we ever have in this climate, will 
injure bees, if their breath is allowed to pass off, so that they are 

* In March, 1856, I lost some of my best colonies, under the folio wirg circum- 
stances : The Winter had been intensely cold, and the hives, having no u~>T?ard ven- 
tilation, were filled with frost, and, in some instances, the ice on their glass sides 
was nearly a quarter of an inch thick. A few days of mild weather, in which the 
frost began to thaw, were followed by a temperature below zero, accompanied by 
furious winds, and in many of the hives, the bee?, which were still wet from the 
thaw, were frozen together in an almost uolid mans. 



Wintering bees. 341 

dry. I never lost a good stock that was dry, and had plenty of 
honey. 

" In the Winter of 1855-6, 1 had twenty stocks standing in a row, 
all but one of which would have been regarded as in a good con- 
dition for wintering — not too tight below, nor yet too open above. 
One was in a hive suspended twenty inches from the ground, and 
without any bottom-board. The chamber for surplus honey-boxes 
was open to the north ; and had eight one-inch holes, all. uncov- 
ered. 

u I left home about the 12th of February, the weather being very, 
cold, and the hives all banked up with drifted snow. Return- 
ing the last of the month, I examined the whole row, and found 
the nineteen thawed out, but in a sadly wet and miserable plight. 
If I could have taken them into a room, out of the reach of the 
frost, until they were dry, they might have been saved. The 
weather changed to severe freezing before the next morning, and 
all the nineteen swarms soon died ; while the one that was 
apparently so neglected, came out strong and healthy. Before 
adopting upward ventilation, I had lost my best swarms in this 
way, until I became discouraged." 

In the coldest parts of our country, if upward ventila- 
tion is neglected, no amount of protection that can be 
given to hives, in the open air, will prevent them from 
becoming damp and mouldy, even if frost is excluded. 
Often, the more they are protected, the greater the risk 
from dampness. A very thin hive unpainted, so that it 
may readily absorb the heat of the sun, will dry inside 
much sooner than one painted white, and in every way 
most thoroughly protected against the cold. The first, 
like a garret, will suffer from dampness for a short time 
only ; while the other, like a cellar, may be so long in 
drying, as to injure, if not destroy, the bees. 

Much has been said in Germany, within the last few 
years, of the danger of bees that have upward ventilation 
perishing in Winter for want of water. Mr. Wagner has 
furnished me with a translation of an able article in the 



342 THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 

Bienenzeitung, by Von Berlepsch, and G. Eberhardt, the 
substance of which is as follows : 

" The Creator has given the bee an instinct to store up honey 
and pollen, which are not always to be procured, but not water, 
which is always accessible in her native regions. In northern 
latitudes, when confined to the hive, often for months together, 
they can obtain the water they need only from the watery parti- 
cles contained in the honey, the perspiration which condenses on 
the colder parts of • the hive, or the humidity of the air which 
enters their hives. 

u Vital energy in the bee is at its lowest point in November and 
December. If, at this time, an unusual degree of cold does not 
force her to resort to muscular action, she remains almost motion- 
less, a death-like silence prevailing in the hive ; and we know, by 
actual experiment, that much less food is consumed than at any 
other time. Breeding having ceased, the weather-bound bees 
have no demands made on their vital action, and we have never 
known them at this time to suffer for want of water. As soon, 
however, as the queen begins to lay, which occurs in many colo- 
nies early in January, and in some by Christmas, the workers 
must eat more freely both honey and pollen, to supply jelly for 
the larvae, and wax for sealing their cells. Much more water is 
needed for these purposes, than when they can procure the fresh 
nectar of flowers ; and the want of it begins to be felt about the 
middle of January. The unmistakable signs of the dearth of water 
in a colony, are found in the granules of candied honey lying on 
the bottom of the hive. The suffering bees will now open cell after 
cell of the sealed honey, to obtain what remains uncandied, and 
w T hen these supplies of moisture fail, will attack the unsealed 
larvsB, and devour the eggs, if any are still laid. They now give 
way to despair, disperse through the hrve, if the cold does no. 
prevent, as though they had lost their queen, and perish amid 
stores of honey, unless milder weather permits them to go in search 
of water, or the Apiarian supplies it in their hive, when order 
will again be restored. 

" After protracted and severe Winters, of every six bees that 
perish, five die for want of water, and not, as was hitherto sup- 



WINTERING BEES. 34:3 

posed, from undue accumulation of faeces. Dysentery is one of 
the direct consequences of water-dearth, the bees, in dire need of 
water, consuming honey immoderately, and taking cold by roam- 
ing about the combs. 

L: On the 11th of February, we examined a number of colonies, 
on whose bottom-boards we noticed particles of candied honey, and 
found that in all of them, the sealed honey had been opened in 
various points, and that breeding had entirely ceased. The colo- 
nies that we had supplied with water on discovering that they 
needed it. contained healthy brood, in every stage of development. 

L ' In March and April, the rapidly increasing amount of brood 
causes an increased demand for water ; and when the thermome- 
ter is as low as 45°, bees maybe seen carrying it in at noon, even 
on' windy days, although many are sure to perish from cold. In 
these months, in 1856, during a protracted period of unfavorable 
weather, we gave all our bees water, and they remained at home 
in quiet, whilst those of other Apiaries were flying briskly in search 
of water. At the beginning of May, our hives were crowded with 
bees ; whilst the colonies of our neighbors were mostly weak. 

" The consumption of water in March and April, in a populous 
colony, is very great, and in 1856, one hundred stocks required 
eleven Berlin quarts per week, to keep on breeding uninterruptedly. 
In Springs where the bees can fly safely almost every day, the 
want of water will not be felt. 

" The loss of bees by water-dearth, is the result of climate, and 
no form of hive, or mode of wintering, can furnish an absolutely 
efficient security against it. The colonies may be put in yard- 
long lager-hives, or in towering standards, in shapeless gums, in 
neat straw hives, or in well lined Dzierzons : in wood, or straw, 
or clay domiciles : or may dwell in hollow trees, or clefts of rocks ; 
they may remain unshielded on their Summer stands; be protected 
by a covering of pine shatters or chaff; or be stored in dark cham- 
bers or vaults — still, water-dearth may occur, here and there, 
earlier or later, and more or less injuriously : because it is counter 
to the original instincts of the bee to dwell in Northern climates^ 
confined to its habitation for months. 

u If water is regularly given to the bees, from the middle of 



344 THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 

January till the Spring fairly opens (unless the weather permiu 
them to fly safely), they will not suffer. This water may be 
placed in a wet sponge in a feeding-box. directly over the bees, 
and protected by a cushion of moss. A hundred or more colonies 
may thus, without disturbance, be quickly supplied." 

That bees cannot raise brood without water, has been 
known from the times of Aristotle. Buera, of Athens 
(Cotton, p. 104), aged 80 years, said in 1797 : "Bees daily- 
supply the worms with water ; should the state of the 
weather be such as to prevent the bees from fetching 
water for a few days, the worms would perish. These 
dead bees are removed out of the hive by the working- 
bees, if they are healthy and strong ; otherwise, the stock 
perishes from their putrid exhalations." I have repeat- 
edly known colonies to suffer severe losses, for want of 
water ; and in my correspondence with bee-keepers, the 
last Winter (1858-9),* have directed their attention to 
this point, and have had my estimate of the value of water 
to bees in Winter greatly increased. But as yet, I have 
had no satisfactory evidence that any colonies, whose 
honey was not candied^ have died from water-dearth. 

The Baron Von Berlepsch says, that " death from this 
cause more rarely occurs in districts where there is late 
Fall bee-forage than in those like his own, where pas- 
turage fails occasionally in July, and usually early in 
August. In such regions, the honey becomes very thick 
in Winter, and sometimes thoroughly candiedf before 

* I am particularly indebted to 1 Mr. William W. Cary, Mr. Richard Colvin, Eev. 
J. C. Bodwell, Mr. E. T. Sturtevant, and Rev. Levi Wheaton, for careful observa- 
tions made — last Winter, at my suggestion — on wintering bees. 

t Madame Vicat, in some observations on bees, published in 1764 — see Wild- 
man, p. 231 — speaks of finding, " on the 24th of March, when the weather was so 
cold that the bees of her other hives did not go abroad, much candied honey on the 
bottom of a hive, and bees which seemed to be expiring. A singular noise was made 
fn the hive, at intervals, and at such times numbers of bees would fall into tho 
candied honey, and perish. The bees not being able to swallow the candied honey 
emptied it out of their combs to get at such as they could swallow." 



WINTERING BEES. 345 

Spring." It is fortunate that, in the coldest parts of 
our country, late forage is usually abundant. 

Berlepsch and Eberhardt not only condemn upward 
ventilation, as depriving the bees of the moisture which 
they need, but insist that it often hastens the ruin of a 
stock, by causing an excess of dampness among the bees, 
although they are actually in want of water. Dzierzon 
thinks that these acute observers have here fallen into a 
great mistake ; and, did my limits permit, I could show 
that their objections to upward ventilation do not 
accord with facts, as observed in this country. So far 
from its being true " that the hive in which perceptible 
condensation of moisture occurs needs water, and that in 
which it does not take place needs none"— moisture often 
condenses so as to wet the combs and the bees* showing 
plainly that there is an excess of water instead of a defi- 
ciency. The following facts, which have been furnished 
to me by the Rev. J. C. Bodwell, of Framingham, Mas- 
sachusetts, are highly important in this connection. His 
colonies were wintered in a very dry cellar : 

" About the beginning of the year (1859). opened my single 
glass hive, and found the bees abundant, and apparently healthy, 
but no eggs nor brood. 

11 Feb. 2. — Examined the same hive, and found sealed brood, 
and unsealed, but no eggs. A considerable part of the brood had 
perished, probably from lack of water. 

u Opened another hive, not so full of bees, and found the same 
state of things, except that less of the brood had perished. Combs 
dry in both, and many honey-cells open. Gave water to all, to 
their evident joy, and closed up the glass hive at the top, for expe- 
riment as to dampness, leaving the rest with upward ventilation. 

"Feb. 5. — Examined both hives. No eggs in glass hive. The 

* In very cold weather, ice and moisture may super-abound in a hive, but it maj 
be so far from the cluster that they cannot obtain it, even when perishing for th« 
want of it. 

15* 



M6 THE HIVE AND HOlfTEY-BEE. 

bees had been busy expelling dead brood. In the other, found 
eggs in moderate quantity. Very small larvae in both. 

"Feb. 11.— Opened glass hive, and found the cells mostly 
emptied of dead brood, and abundance of eggs, and larvae just 
hatched. Discovered an opening between the hive and top-board, 
permitting upward ventilation, and closed it. 

u March 1. — Made a thorough examination of both hives. Eggs, 
larvae, and sealed brood in both. The glass hive very wet, water 
standing on the tops of the frames, and at least a gill on the bottom- 
board; combs mouldy, and whole aspect of things comfortless. 
The other, quite dry, both hive and combs. Examined two other 
glass hives, having top ventilation, and found them dry All have 
been treated precisely alike, except that the closed-up hive has 
had less water, as the bees did not seem to want it — manifesting 
no pleasure at receiving it. This hive had not so many eggs as 
the other, though much the larger stock, and appeared in a less 
healthy condition generally." 

In any of my hives which have an upper cover, the bees 
can be easily supplied with water, and in those which 
have none, it may be injected with a straw into the 
winter entrance, or poured through the roof by a small 
hole, stopped with a plug, care being taken not to give 
too much.* 

If the colonies are strong in numbers and stores, have 
upward ventilation, easy communication from comb to 
comb, and water whe7i / needed — and the hive entrances are 

* Mr. Wheaton finds that they will easily supply themselves with water from a 
sponge put over a hole, and covered with a tumbler : " If the water is sweetened, 
they will always drain the sponge ; if not, they pay little attention to it, unless 
prevented from going abroad." 

Mr. Wagner suggests that a piece of roofing-slate, fastened to the underside of 
the bottom-board, will cause the water to condense over the bees, where they can 
easily get access to it. Mr. Cary, at my suggestion, has placed a pane of glass 
on the frames directly over the bees, and the water condensed on it has seemed 
to supply all their wants. It should be elevated, so that the bees can pass under it. 
It may be found that, by some such simple device, we can, without any super- 
vision, supply all the moisture that a strong colony needs in the coldest weather, 
before breeding has begun very actively. There is little doubt that it would answci 
for bees that are not wintered in the open air. 



WINTERING BEES. 347 

sheltered from piercing winds, they have all the condi- 
tions essential to wintering successfully in the open air. 

Great injury is often done by disturbing a colony of 
bees when the weather is so cold that they cannot fly 
Many which are tempted to leave the cluster, perish 
before they can regain it, and every disturbance, by 
rousing them to needless activity, causes an increased 
consumption of food. About once in six weeks, however, 
it will be advisable to clean the bottom-boards of hives 
wintered in the open air, of dead bees, and other refuse. 
Where permanent bottom-boards are used, this may be 
done with a scraper (Plate XL, Fig. 30), made of a piece 
of iron- wire, about two feet long ; this, when heated, is 
bent about four inches, and flattened to one-quarter of an 
inch wide, both edges being made sharp.* 

Bees very rarely discharge their faeces in the hive, 
unless they are diseased or greatly disturbed. If the 
Winter has been uncommonly severe, and they have had 
no opportunity to fly, their abdomens, before Spring, often 
become greatly distended, and they are very liable to be 
lost in the snow, if the weather, on their first flight, is not 
unusually favorable. After they have once discharged 
their faeces, they will not venture from their hives, in un- 
suitable weather, if well supplied w^th water. 

Having given the necessary precautions for wintering 
bees out of doors, the methods for defending them 
against atmospheric changes, by placing them in special 
depositories, will be described. 

In some parts of Europe, it is customary to winter all 

* Where a ventilator is made on the back of the hive (Plate V., Fig. 16), any 
refuse may be blown out by a pair of bellows. A very little smoke should be used 
before cleaning the bottom-board. Palladius, who flourished nearly two thousand 
years ago, 6ays that bees ought not to be disturbed in Winter, except for the pur« 
pose of cleaning their hives of dead bees, &c 



348 THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 

the stocks of a village in a common vault or cellar. 
Dzierzon says : 

i: A dry cellar is very well adapted for wintering bees, even 
though it be not wholly secure from frost; the temperature will 
be much milder, and more uniform than in the open air ; the bees 
will be more secure from disturbance, and will be protected from 
the piercing cold winds, which cause more injury than the greatest 
degree of cold when the air is calm. 

" Universal experience teaches that the more effectually bees 
are protected from disturbance and from the variations of tempe- 
rature, the better will they pass the Winter, the less will they 
consume of their stores, and the more vigorous and numerous will 
they be in the Spring. I have, therefore, constructed a special 
Winter repository for my bees, near my Apiary. It is weather- 
boarded both outside and within, and the intervening space is 
filled with hay or tan, &c. ) the ground plat enclosed is dug out 
to the depth of three or four feet, so as to secure a more moderate 
and equable temperature. When my hives are placed in this 
depository, and the door locked, the darkness, uniform tempera- 
ture, and entire repose the bees enjoy, enable them to pass the 
Winter securely. I usually place here my weaker, colonies, and 
those whose hives are not made of the warmest materials, and 
they always do well. If such a structure is to be partly under- 
ground, a very dry site must be selected for it." 

Mr. Quinby, who has probably the largest Apiary in 
the United States, has for many years wintered his bees, 
with great success, in a room specially adapted to the pur- 
pose. To get rid of the dampness, he inverts the com- 
mon hives, and removes the board that covers my 
frames. 

Mr. Wagner has furnished me with the following trans- 
lation of a very able article from the JSienenzeitung. 
The author, the Rev. Mr. Scholtz, of Lower Silesia, is 
widely known in Germany for his skill in bee-keeping: 

c: Farmers have long been in the habit of placing apples, potatoes, 
turnips, &c. in clamps, to preserve them during Winter. They 




WINTERING BEES. 349 

are piled in a pyiamidal form, on a bed of straw, and covered six 
or eight inches thick, with the same material, evenly spread, as in 
thatching ; and the whole is covered, in a conical form, with a 
layer of earth twelve inches thick, taken from a trench which is 
dug around the clamp. The proper finish is given by beating this 
earth smooth and even, with the back of the spade. This mode 
of preservation, when well executed, is found to keep fruit, tuber- 
ous roots, &c., in better condition during cold weather, than can 
be effected in cellars or vaults. 

" These facts suggested to me the idea of protecting bees during 
the Winter, in a similar manner. It was evident, however, that 
a bee-clamp would require various modifications, to secure proper 
ventilation, to prevent undue development of heat, and to obviate 
an accumulation of moisture ; and an arrangement, also, for readily 
ascertaining, and effectually regulating the temperature. All 
this, too, without seriously disturbing the bees, after the hives 
have been deposited in the clamp. 

" To attain these objects, a circular space, sufficiently large for 
the intended purpose, is to be marked off on the driest and most 
elevated part of a garden, or other suitable spot of ground. The 
surface-soil containing vegetable matter, liable to decay, is then 
to be removed, and in the central part of the plot, a pit, three feet 
square, and three feet deep (see Fig. 66), is to be dug, spreading 
the earth taken therefrom evenly around, and treading it down 
hard. This pif is designed to serve as an air-chamber, as will be 
fully explained hereafter. 

" The area having been properly prepared, four trenches, one 
inch and a half wide and deep, are to be dug ; one extending from 
the middle of each of the four sides of the pit, to the outer edge 
of the periphery of the plot (PI. XXL, Fig. 66). Into each of 
these trenches, a lead pipe, one inch in diameter, is to be laid, so 
as to form a communication between the pit and the air outside 
of the clamp when finished (PI. XXL, Fig. 66). When these 
pipes are covered with earth, and the ground again leveled, a 
narrow strip of board should be laid thereon, to designate the 
position of Ihe tubes, that they may not be injured in subsequent 
operations. 



b50 . THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 

" The area, including the air-chamber, is now to be covered with 
pieces of four-inch scantling, placed radiating from the centre, as 
nearly as practicable at regular distances apart, to serve as a plat- 
form on which the lower tier of hives is to be placed. The scant- 
ling should be cut of unequal lengths, and placed end to end, four 
inches apart, so as to leave interstices for the free circulation of 
air ; and where required, as the space widens towards the circum- 
ference, additional pieces are to be laid in, so that the hives may- 
be set firm and level. On this platform, the hives are to be built 
up in tiers, so that the clamp, when completed, shall present the 
form of a pyramid. Thus, the lower tier may consist of four 
ranges, of four hives each -, the second, of three ranges, of three 
hives each ) and the third, of two ranges, of two hives each. The 
fourth, or apex, however, must be formed of two hives, instead of 
one, for reasons which will hereafter appear (PI. XXL, Fig. 68). 
The whole will thus form a four-sided pyramid, consisting of 
thirty-one hives, which, if Dzierzon's double hives be used, will 
contain sixty-two colonies, in a comparatively small space. The 
oblong clamp (PL XXL, Fig. 70), is constructed on similar princi- 
ples, with the requisite variation in shape. 

" These hives, which are placed on the platform directly over the 
pit, or air-chamber, must be set six inches apart, so that a con- 
tinuous funnel, or direct air-passage, may be formed from the 
centre of the air-chamber below, to the apex of the clamp ; and 
on the opposite fronts of the two uppermost hives, Is to be placed 
a kind of chimney (see p. 351), made of four pieces of board, eight 
inches broad, and thirty inches long, having a movable cap, with 
a suitable slope, to prevent the entrance of rain. Holes are to be 
made in the sides of the chimney, below the cap, to allow the 
upward passage of air from the interior of the clamp. The rest 
of the hives may be placed closer together, though it is advanta- 
geous that they should not touch each other, so as to obstruct cir- 
culation in the interior, as it is important that the proprietor 
should be able to regulate the internal temperature uniformly. 
Very great exactness in arranging the hives, is, however, noi. 
require. It is essential only that they be set firm and level, so 
as to constitute a regular pyramid. Care must also be taken, not 



Plate XXI. 



Fig. 66 




Fig. 67. 





Fig. 10. 



Fig. 69. 




351 




WINTERING BEES. 353 

to commence by placing the hives too near the periphery of the 
area; because, between the outer edge of the lower tier of the 
hives, and the exterior mouths of the ventilating tubes, sufficient 
space must be reserved for the external covering, or mantle of the 
clamp (PL XXL, Fig. 69). 

u When the hives have been arranged in the manner described, 
and the chimney has been placed on the two upper ones, over the 
flue communicating with the pit, they are to be covered in with 
boards, cut to proper lengths, and placed vertically, side by side, 
around the sides of the pyramid. On and against these boards is 
to be laid a thick layer of rushes or old dry straw, forming a 
regular and dense coating, from base to apex. This coating is, in 
turn, to be covered with a layer of earth, five or six inches thick, 
spread as evenly as practicable, commencing below and proceed- 
ing upward to the chimney, so that the latter, having already been 
secured in its place by the boards and the straw or rushes, is now 
covered by the earth, to within six or seven inches of its top. The 
earth for covering, is taken directly from the base of the clamp, 
around which a trench six inches deep, and eighteen inches wide, 
is now to be dug, so as to expose the mouths of the ventilating 
tubes at the upper edge of the interior side of the trench. In dig- 
ging the trench, care must be taken not to close or injure the 
mouths of the tubes, which should, moreover, be secured by a per- 
forated tin cap, to exclude mice, and other vermin, and yet allow 
the free passage of air. The trench will serve to receive and 
carry off rain or snow-water, during the Winter ; and to effect 
this more perfectly, several gutters or furrows should be drawn 
from it outwards. If sufficient earth be not obtained from the 
trench to cover in the straw or rushes completely, at least five 
inches thick, the deficiency must be supplied from other sources. 
The earth covering should be dressed smooth and even with the 
back of a spade. 

" In this state, the clamp should be allowed to remain till severe 
frosts )ccur, when an additional coat of leaves or pine shatters 
is to be given. This should be five or six inches thick, and 
applied as evenly as possible, from base to apex, leaving only 
about four inches of the chimney exposed. This material should 



354 THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 

be applied wet. as it will thus pack more closely, and afterwards 
better confine the heat. When finished, it should be well sprinkled 
with water from a watering-can, and allowed to freeze. A very 
compact structure will thus be formed (Figs. 69 and 70). The 
mouths of the ventilating tubes should next be protected, by plac- 
ing a piece of board before each of them ; and the trenches are then 
to be filled loosely witl. tangled straw. 

" All this labor must be performed gently, so as to disturb the 
confined bees as little as practicable. The covering of leaves or 
pine-shatters should not be applied till after cold weather sets in ; 
and it may be deferred till after the earlier snows have fallen and 
melted, and the severer weather of December or January makes 
additional protection desirable. 

u If an extensive Apiary renders a clamp of larger dimensions 
necessary, two or three pits, or air-chambers, with their appur- 
tenant ventilating tubes and chimneys (PI. XXL, Fig. 70) may 
be introduced. 

u On clear, mild days, the protecting boards may be removed from 
the mouth of the ventilating tubes, that fresh air may freely enter 
the clamp, and carry off any dampness which may have formed 
within ; and, as the entire interior is in direct communication 
with the air-chamber, a dry and healthy atmosphere will speedily 
be diffused throughout, by means of the draught of the chimney. 
Towards evening, the protecting-boards should be replaced. On 
the return of milder weather, or on the termination of severe and 
protracted frosts, the mouths of the ventilating tubes may be 
uncovered, and left open, day and night, to prevent the undue 
development of heat in the interior ; but in clear weather, the 
direct rays of the sun should be excluded from the mouths of the 
tubes. If the holes in the sides of the chimney should at any time 
become closed with snow, the obstructions must be removed, by 
means of a rake or other convenient implement. When the 
exterior of the clamp is covered with snow, the mouth of one of 
the ventilating tubes should be kept open, even in cold weather, 
and of all of them, when the weather is moderate, because the 
mow covering causes great internal warmth. 

u To ascertain the interior temperature, a thermometer attached 



' 



WINTERING BEES. 355 

to a long rod may be introduced into the air-chamber, through the 
chimney, on removing the cap. This should be done frequently, 
to serve as a guide for opening or closing the mouths of the venti- 
lating tubes. Ventilation seems, however, according to the nu- 
merous experiments which I have made, to be of less importance 
to the health of the bees, than to preserve the combs and interior 
of the hives from dampness and mould ; and it is in view of this 
fact, that I have adopted the peculiar arrangement of my clamps, 
which places it in the power of the Apiarian, at almost any time, 
to cause an adequate circulation of pure dry air within them. 

u Apart from their cheapness, these clamps are far superior, for 
the purpose intended, to the best vaults or cellars ordinarily 
accessible. It might be objected to this mode of wintering bees, 
that the hives cannot be inspected during the Winter, however 
desirable such inspection might seem to be. That is so ; but, in 
devising my clamps. I really had no reference whatever to that 
class of bee-keepers who are in the habit of operating among their 
colonies in Winter. Their case, in fact, seems to me to be a rather 
hopeless one at best, since colonies that are thus treated at that 
season, will scarcely ever enable their owner to found an Apiary 
worthy of the name. I prefer to let my bees remain undisturbed 
during cold weather, satisfied that if they were in good condition 
when inclosed in the Fall, they will pass the Winter uninjured, 
and be found with adequate supplies of honey even in April. Of 
this I am the more assured, since I have ascertained that bees 
preserved in clamps consume scarcely one-half of the quantity of 
honey required by such as are wintered in the open air, or in the* 
Apiary. 

" To institute a comparison between different modes of winter- 
ing bees, I placed a portion of my colonies in a clamp of the fore- 
going construction, on the 17th of November, 1856, and transferred 
the remainder into a well-protected dark chamber in my dwelling- 
house. Of some of the latter, I closed the entrances, but gave 
them air through a grate or ventilating-passage in the rear of their 
hives. Of the remainder, the entrances, as well as the ventilat- 
ing-passages, were shut close. Several of 'those placed in the 
clamp were designedly selected as having only eight cr ten pound* 



356 THE HIYE AND HONEY-BEE. 

of honey each, that I might ascertain whether they would survive 
with so small a supply of food. I placed therein, also, a late 
after-swarm, which had built only a few short combs, and con- 
tained not more than four or five pounds of honey. All the 
others had ample stores. I closed the entrance and ventilating- 
passage of one strong colony, and placed some pieces of empty comb 
in the rear of the hive, to test whether, if moisture were generated 
from want of ventilation, mould would form on those combs. 

"From the 18th to the 23rd of November, the weather was 
very mild, and the ventilating-tubes were, therefore, all left open 
day and night. . On the 24th, the clamp was covered with snow, 
and I closed three of the ventilating-tubes. On the 26th, a thaw 
commenced, and the weather continued to be very moderate to 
the end of the month, the thermometer standing at 33° in the 
open air. Two of the tubes were kept open. From the 1st to 
the 3rd of December, ten inches of snow fell, with the thermo- 
meter ranging from 20° to 22° ) and I kept only one tube open. 
On the 6th, the weather moderated ; from the 7th to the 12th, the 
thermometer stood at from 54° to 66°, and I again opened all the 
tubes, and kept them open till the end of the month, and to the 
5th of January. On the 6th, the weather became cold and freez- 
ing, and I now added the outer mantle, or coating of leaves an 
pine shatters, closing all the tubes. The cold spell continued till 
the 17th of January. From the 18th till the end of the month, 
we had continuous fair> mild weather, and I opened all the venti- 
lating-tubes. In February, the weather was particularly mild 
and fair, and, from the 18th to the 21st, the thermometer range 
from 76° to 78°. The bees belonging to some of my neighbors, 
and which were wintered in the open air, were now flying briskly 
every day, and most of the colonies in my chamber became 
restless . that I was constrained to remove them out of their 
Winter quarters. 1 did so with the less reluctance, as we had all 
the indications of an early Spring. The fair weather continuing, 
I deemed it wrong to keep my colonies longer confined in the 
clamp, and accordingly opened it on the 27th of February, 
release them. 

" Though the clamp had been exposed to the direct rays of the 



WINTERING BKES. 357 

noonday sun, and the thermometer had daily ranged at irom 76° 
to 78° for some time previous, yet, on removing the outer mantle, 
I found the earth-covering below it still frozen, so that it had to 
be removed with a hoe — a satisfactory proof that the interior of 
the clamp could not have been affected by external variations of 
temperature. I now became exceedingly anxious to see whether 
rain or snow-water had penetrated to the straw covering, as 1 
apprehended might be the case, having had no previous expe- 
rience in such matters. To my surprise and gratification, how- 
ever, I found it thoroughly dry — showing conclusively that the 
earth-covering had sufficed effectually to shed off the rain and 
snow-water, and that the ample and efficient internal ventilation 
had prevented the formation of moisture and mould. On remov- 
ing the straw, I perceived no symptom of dampness on the boards ; 
and when, finally, these latter were taken away, the hives pre- 
sented themselves as clean and dry as when put there in the Fal 1 . 
u Anxious now to ascertain the condition of their inmates, I 
tapped against the hives, but. to my dismay, heard no response. 
I seized a stick, and, tapping harder and harder, finally proceeded 
to blows • still all remained mute within. An old man from the 
neighboring village, who chanced to be present, seemed vastly 
gratified at my chagrin and consternation, as he and his neigh- 
bors had kept bees for many years, but had no fancy for such 
novel contrivances and experiments as mine. I must admit that 
I was, for the moment, thoroughly disconcerted on finding, as I 
then supposed, all my anticipations and confident calculations 
thus suddenly and effectually nullified. But, resolved to know 
the worst, I removed the hives to the Apiary, where the sun 
shone bright and warm ; and scarcely were the entrances opened, 
when the bees began to pour forth in masses, humming joyously, 
to my irrepressible delight, and to the utter discomfiture of the 
eld villager. With special gratification did I notice that the bees 
came forth from their long imprisonment with bodies as attenuate 
and slender as they had in the preceding Autumn, whilst those 
which had been wintered in the dark chamber soiled their hives 
and all surrounding objects, by profuse discharges of faecal matter. 
This led me to conjecture that these colonies had consumed ^ora- 



358 THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 

paratively little honey, which was found to be the fact on open- 
ing the hives and examining the condition of their stores. Those 
colonies which had only eight or ten pounds of honey in the Fall, 
had still a surplus remaining, and were healthy and strong; while 
the poor little after-swarm had not only well preserved its num- 
bers, but had the greater portion of its small supply of honey 
still in reserve. Few dead bees were found, and those probably 
died of old age. The loss of bees was very much greater in the 
colonies which had been wintered in the house, and more than 
double the quantity of honey had been consumed by each of them ; 
so that a very important saving can manifestly be effected by means 
of clamps, apart from the other important advantages which this 
mode of wintering bees possesses. The combs in all the colonies 
were clean and free from mould, and I could perceive no differ- 
ence in this particular between the hives which had their entrances 
and ventilating passages closed, and those in which the latter had 
been left open, the pieces of old comb, even, having remained dry 
and free from mould. Satisfactory proof was thus furnished that, 
where the temperature is moderate and uniform throughout, con- 
densation of moisture will not result from close confinement. 
Still, from various considerations, I would recommend ventilation 
in every hive ; and previous experience has taught me that bees 
will remain more tranquil during the Winter in hives duly venti- 
lated, than in such as are closed. A number of the colonies 
deposited in my dark room were purposely confined without ven- 
tilation. Three of these became very restless, consumed a dis- 
proportionate amount of their stores, and very many of the bees 
perished. Precisely these three colonies, though still strong and 
healthy in the Spring, were yet the weakest of the whole lot, 
though in as good condition as the others when removed from the 
Apiary in Autumn. Nothing similar occurred in the colonies 
which had even partial ventilation. 

'-'' Having thus, by these diversified experiments in wintering 
bees, arrived at certain and satisfactory results, I shall never 
hereafter winter my movable colonies otherwise than in clamps. 

" Since the publication of my mode of wintering bees in 
clamps, some objections have been urged against it, which I shall 



WINTERING BEES. 859 

briefly notice, before giving the results of my further experience 
in tli is matter. 

Ci The expense of constructing: the clamps has been alleged as an 
objection to the use of them. In my case, the cost of labor was 
simply the hire, for one day, of two men, who assisted me in pre- 
paring the area, carrying the hives thither, and arranging and 
enclosing them. The materials used, with the exception of the 
scantling, cost literally nothing, as any old boards can be made 
to serve the purpose, and the rushes, or straw, leaves, &c, em- 
ployed, are always worth their cost for litter. 

" A second objection is, that rats and mice will be induced to 
collect and harbor in the clamps, if straw be used. I never use 
any but old straw, thoroughly divested of grain, and prefer using 
rushes when they can conveniently be procured. T have, how- 
ever, thus far, not been annoyed by rats or mice. 

" To show how very superior clamps are for wintering bees, in 
thin hives especially, I will state that one of my neighbors, 
whose hives are made of inch boards, and who invariably lost 
many bees, and frequently entire colonies, when he left them to 
winter, as he usually did, in his open Apiary, was induced by my 
success to place his hives in a clamp last Fall. They were put 
in on the 11th of November, 1857, and remained undisturbed till 
the 29th of March, 1858. When opened, all the colonies proved 
to be in excellent condition, strong, and entirely free from mould 
or moisture. Never, in any previous season, had he been equally 
successful, nor had his bees ever before required or received so 
little personal attention from him. He was i a doubting Thomas, 7 
when he saw me arranging my first clamp, but is now a thorough 
convert to the system, and declares that he will, in future, use 
no other mode, as he cannot conceive that a better could be 
devised. 

;< My own colonies remained in the clamp from the 13th of 
November to the 29th of March, 1858, and were perfectly sound 
and healthy when I opened them. The earth under the outer 
mantle was still frozen, and had to be removed with a hoe, as in 
the previous year, thus showing that the bees were not affected 
by the prevalent, mild weather. Long confinement had not 



300 THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 

injured them in the least degree, because, reposing in a low and 
equable temperature, they had consumed proportionably little 
honey, and remained without excitement or disturbance during 
£he whole period. I am now fully convinced that bees may 
remain confined in this manner during the most protracted 
Winter, not only without injury, but with positive benefit, as 
thev are altogether secure from the always detrimental, and 
frequently ruinous, effects of exposure to the vicissitudes of the 
weather in our variable climate. 

u To simplify the construction of the clamps, I made my last 
one longer and lower than the one I prepared the previous Fall ) 
and I was thus able to appfy the successive covers, or mantles, 
more easily and conveniently. I also dispensed with the chimney, 
and could thus close the top more regularly and perfectly, laying 
over the apex, boards weighted down with stones to keep them in 
place. I found no disadvantage resulting from discarding the 
chimney, as the ventilating-tubes enabled me still to regulate the 
internal temperature, and give the bees a sufficient supply of 
fresh air. I also enlarged the air-chamber, making it three feet 
deep, as before, by only thirty inches broad, and lengthening it so 
as to extend the whole length of the interior diameter of the 
clamp. In every other respect, the construction remained the 
same." 

When hives are wintered in a special repository, I 
should advise giving them upward ventilation. If they 
are in cellars or rooms, the upper cover may be entirely 
removed ; and, if put in clamps, then it may be fastened, 
as advised on page 338, and some air be allowed to enter at 
the lower part of the hive. 

In all the northern parts of this country, it is very 
obvious that those who mean to establish large Apiaries 
will have to so winter their bees, that they shall not be 
exposed to the usual atmospheric changes. What way 
precisely is the best can only be determined by careful 
and long-continued experiments. These ought not to be 
conducted so as to hazard too much in one venture. 



Fig. 71. 



Plate XXII. 




WINTERING BEES. 361 

Great loss is often incurred in replacing upon their 
Summer stands the stocks which have been kept in special 
depositories. Unless the day when they are put out is 
very favorable, many will be lost when they fly to dis- 
charge their feces. In movable-comb hives, this risk can 
be greatly diminished, by removing the cover from the 
frames, and allowing the sun to shine directly upon the 
bees; this will warm them up so quickly, that they will all 
discharge their feces in a very short time.* 

After the stocks are placed on their Summer stands,! 
the precautions already described should be taken to 
strengthen feeble or impoverished colonies (p. 221). 

* The following is an extract from my journal : 

"Jan. 31st, 1857. — Bemoved tM upper cover, exposing the bees to the full heat 
of the sun, the thermometer being 30° in the shade, and the atmosphere calm. 
The hive standing on the sunny side of the house, the bees quickly took wing and 
discharged their faeces. Very few were lost on the snow, and nearly all that 
alighted on it took wing without being chilled. More bees were lost from other 
hives which were not opened, as few which left were able to return ; while, in tho 
one with the cover removed, the returning bees were able to alight at once among 
their warm companions.' 1 

t Dzierzon advises placing them on their former stands, as many bees still 
remember the old spot. Mr. Quinby uses this time for equalizing the colonies, st 
he finds that, li being all wintered in f^e room, their scent is so much alik 
that they mix together without contention. 



i* 



3G2 THE HIVE AND IIONEY-BKK. 



CHAPTER XXII. 

bee-keeper's calendar — bee-keeper's axioms. 

This Chapter gives to the inexperienced bee-keeper 
brief directions for each month in the year,* and, by 
means of the full Alphabetical Index, all that is said on 
any topic can easily be referred to. 

January. — In cold climates, bees are now usually in a 
state oi' repose. If the colonies have had proper attention 
in the Fall, nothing will ordinarily need to be done that 
will excite them to an injurious activity. In very cold 
climates, however, when a severe temperature is of long 
continuance, it will be necessary, unless the hives have 
thorough upward (p. 3-40) ventilation, to bring them into 
a warm room (p. 341), to thaw out the ice, remove the 
dampness, and allow the bees to get access to their sup- 
plies. In January there are occasionally, even it very 
cold latitudes, days so pleasant that bees can fly out to 
discharge their feces ; do not confine them (p. 337), even 
if some are lost on the snow. In this month clean the 
bottom-boards (p. 347), but disturb the bees as little as 
possible. See, also, that they are properly supplied with 
water (p. 344), as healthy stocks have already begun to 
breed (p. 239). 

February. — This month is sometimes colder than 
January, and then the directions given for the previous 
month must be followed. In mild seasons, however, and in 
warm regions, bees begin to fly quite lively in February, 
and in some locations they gather pollen. The bottom- 

* PaUadiua, who wrote on bees nearly 2,000 years ago, arranges his remarks in 

the form of a monthly calendar. 



C< 



CALENDAR 363 

board should be again attended to, as soon as the bees 
are actively on the wing, and, if any hives are suspiciously 
light, sugar-candy (p. 272) should he given them. Strong 
colonies will now begin to breed considerably, but nothing 
;hould be done to excite them to premature activity, 
ee that the bees are supplied with water (p. 344) . 

March. — In our Northern States, the inhospitable 
reign of Winter still continues, and the directions given 
for the two previous months are applicable to this. If 
there should be a pleasant day, when bees are able to fly 
briskly, seize the opportunity to remove the covers 
(p. 361) ; carefully clean out the hives (p. 221), and learn 
the exact condition of every colony. See that your bees 
have water (p. 344), and are well supplied with rye-flour 
(p. 84). In this month, weak stocks commonly begin to 
breed, while strong ones increase quite rapidly. If the 
weather is favorable, colonies which have been kept in a 
special Winter depository, may now be put upon their 
proper stands (p. 361). As soon as severe Winter weather 
is over, it will be necessary to shut off all upward ventila- 
tion. 

April. — Bees will ordinarily begin to gather much 
pollen in this month, and sometimes considerable honey. 
As brood is now very rapidly maturing, there is a largely 
increased demand for honey, and great care should be 
taken to prevent the bees from suffering for want of 
food. If the supplies are at all deficient, breeding will be 
checked, even if much of the brood does not perish, or the 
whole colony die of starvation. If the weather is pro- 
pitious, feeding to promote a more rapid increase of young 
(p. 268) may now be commenced. Feeble colonies must 
now be reinforced (p. 221), and should the weather con- 
tinue cold for several days at a time, the bees ought to 
be supplied with water (p. 344) in their hives. In April. 



364 THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 

if not before, the larvae of the bee-moth will begin to make 
their appearance, and should be carefully destroyed 
(p. 248). 

May. — As the weather becomes more genial, the 
increase of bees in the colonies is exceedingly rapid, and 
drones, if they have not previously made their appearance, 
begin to issue from the hives. In some locations, the bees 
will now gather much honey, and it will often be advisa- 
ble to give them access to the spare honey receptacles ;* 
but in some seasons and locations, either from long and 
cold storms, or a deficiency of forage, stocks not well sup- 
plied with honey will exhaust their stores, and perish, 
unless they are fed. In favorable seasons, swarms may be 
expected in this month, even in the Northern States. 
These May swarms often issue near the close of the blos- 
soming of fruit-trees, and just before the later supplies of 
forage, and if the weather becomes suddenly unfavorable, 
may starve, unless they are fed. Even if there is no dan- 
ger of this, they will make so little progress in comb- 
building and breeding, when food is scarce, as to be sur- 
passed by much later swarms. The Apiarian should have 
hives in readiness to receive new swarms, however early 
they may issue, or be formed. If new colonies are to be 
made by artificial processes, a seasonable supply of 
queens (p. 188) should be reared. 

June. — This is the great swarming month in all our 
Northern and Middle States. As bees keep up a high 
temperature in their hives, they are by no means so de- 
pendent upon the weather for forwardness, as plants, and 
as most other insects necessarily are. I have had as early 
swarms in Northern Massachusetts, as in the vicinity of 
Philadelphia. 

* If natural swarms are wanted, the bees should not be allowed to occupy too 
much surplus storage-room. 



bee-keeper's calendar. 365 

If the Apiary is not carefully watched, the bee-keeper, 
after a short absence, should examine the neighboring 
bushes and trees, on some of which he will often find a 
swarm clustered, preparatory to their departure for anew 
home.* 

As fast as the surplus honey-receptacles are filled,f and 
the cells capped over, they should be removed, and empty 
ones put in their place. Careless bee-keepers often lose 
much, by neglecting to do this in season, thereby con- 
demning their colonies to a very unwilling idleness. The 
Apiarian will bear in mind, that all small swarms which 
come oft* late in this month, should be either aided, doubled, 
or returned to the mother-stock. With my hives, the 
issue of such swarms may be prevented, by removing, in 
season, the supernumerary queen-cells. During all the 
swarming season, and, indeed, at all other times when 
young queens are being bred, the bee-keeper must ascer- 
tain seasonably, that the hives which contain them, suc- 
ceed in securing a fertile mother (p. 218). 

July. — In some seasons and districts, this is the great 
swarming month ; while in others, bees issuing so late, are 
of small account. In Northern Massachusetts, I have 
known swarms coming after the Fourth of July, to fill 
their hives, and make large quantities of surplus honey 
besides. In this month, all the choicest spare honey 
should be removed from the hives, before the delicate 

* "As it may often be important to know from which hive the swarm has issued, 
after it has been hived and removed to its new stand, let a cup-full of bees be taken 
from it. and thrown into the air, near the Apiary ; they will soon return to the 
parent-stock, and may easily be recognized, by their standing at the entrance, and 
fanning, like ventilating bees.' 11 — Dzterzon. In my hives, it will be easy, from the 
back ventilator, to decide whether a stock is full enough to swarm, or has recently 
ewavmed, even when there is no glass for observation. 

t Mr. Quinby informs me, that he succeeds in making bees fill a double tier of 
small boxes, by placing one set on the hive first ; when they have partially filled 
these, he puts the second set under the first. By making a hole in the top. as we!/ 
as IP the bottom of the box PI. XT., Fig. 24). this can easily be effected. 



366 „ THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 

whiteness of the combs becomes soiled by the travel oi 
the bees, or the purity of the honey is impaired by an 
inferior article gathered later in the season. 

The bees should have a liberal allowance of air during 
all extremely hot weather, especially if they are in unpaint- 
ed hives, or stand in the sun. 

August. — In most regions, there is but little forage for 
bees during the latter part of July, and the first of 
August, and being, on this account, tempted to rob each 
other, the greatest precautions should be used in opening- 
hives. In districts where buckwheat is extensively culti- 
vated, bees will sometimes swarm when it comes into 
blossom, and in some seasons, extraordinary supplies are 
obtained from it. In 1856, I had a buckwheat swarm as 
late as the 16th of September! 

If any colonies are so full of honey, that they have not 
room enough for raising brood, some of the combs should 
now be removed (p. 183). If the caps of the cells are 
carefully sliced off with a very sharp knife, and the combs 
laid over a vessel, in some moderately warm place, and 
turned once, most of the honey will drain out of them, 
and they may be returned to the bees, to be filled again. 

The bee-keeper who has queenless stocks on hand in 
August, must expect, as the result of his ignorance or 
neglect, either to have them robbed by other colonies, or 
destroyed by the moth (p. 246). 

September. — This is often a very busy month with 
bees. The Fall flowers come into blossom, and in some 
seasons, colonies which have hitherto amassed but little 
honey, become heavy, and even yield a surplus to their 
owner. Bees are quite reluctant to work in boxes, so late 
in the season, even if supplies are very abundant ; but if 
empty combs are inserted in the place of full ones removed, 
they will fill them with astonishing celerity. These full 



367 

combs may afterwards be returned, if the bees have not a 
sufficient supply without them. 

If no Fall supplies abound, and any stocks are too light 
to winter with safety, then, in the Northern States, the 
latter part of this month is the proper time for feeding 
them. I have already stated (p. 274), that it is impossible 
to tell how much food a colony will require, to carry it 
safely through the Winter ; it will be found, however, 
very unsafe to trust to a bare supply, for even if there is 
food enough, it may not always be readily accessible to 
the bees. Great caution will still be necessary to guard 
against robbing ; but if there are no feeble, queenless, or 
impoverished stocks, the bees, unless tempted by improper 
management, will seldom rob each other. 

October. — Forage is now almost entirely exhausted in 
most localities, and colonies which are too light should 
either be fed, or have surplus honey from other stocks 
given to them, early this month. The exact condition of 
every stock should noAV be known, at the latest, and, if 
any are queenless, they should be broken up. Small 
colonies ought to be united, and all the hives put into 
proper condition for wintering. Some full honey-combs 
should be put in the centre of the hive, and holes, for 
easy intercommunication, made in the combs (p. 337) ; 
and, if the hives have a Avinter-passage, bees should now 
be accustomed to use it (p. 338). By the last of this 
month, the glass hives should be packed between their 
outer cases ancl the glass, with cotton waste, moss, or any 
warm material. 

November. — I take for granted that all necessary pre- 
parations for Winter have, in our Northern States, been 
completed by the last of the previous month. If, how- 
ever, the bee-keeper has been prevented from examining 
his stocks, he may, on warm days, in November, safely 



368 THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 

perform all necessary operations, the feeding with liquid 
honey excepted. The entrances to the hives must now 
be secured against mice, and it will be well to give the 
roofs a new coat of paint. If the hives are to be exposed 
to the sun, no color is so good as a pure white ; but, if 
they are set under the shade of trees (p. 280), a dark 
color will do them no harm, in the hottest weather, while 
early in the season, before the leaves are expanded, by 
absorbing instead of reflecting the heat, it will prove 
highly advantageous to the bees. 

By the latter part of November, in our Northern 
States, Winter usually sets" in, and colonies which are to 
be kept in a special Winter depository, should be properly 
housed. The later in the season that the bees are able to 
fly out and discharge their feces, the better. The bee- 
keeper must regulate the time of housing his bees by the 
season and climate, being careful neither to take them in 
until cold weather appears to be fairly established, nor to 
leave them out too late. If colonies are carried in too 
early, and quite warm weather succeeds the first cold, it 
may be advisable to replace them on their Summer 
stands.* 

As soon as freezing weather sets in, the colonies stand- 
ing in the open air must have upward ventilation (p. 338). 

December. — In regions where it is advisable to house 
bees, the dreary reign of Winter is now fairly established, 
and the directions given for January are for the. most part 
equally applicable to this month. It may be well, in 
hives out of doors, to remove the dead bees and othei 
refuse from the bottom-boards ; but, neither in this month 
nor at any other time should this be attempted with those 
removed to a dark and protected place. Such colonies 

* If the bees are wintered on Mr. Scholtz's plan, it will neither be possible noi 
desirable to replace them on their Summer stands. 



I 




Plate XXIII. 








bee-keepek's axioms. 369 

must not, except under the pressure of some urgent 
necessity, be disturbed in the very least. 

I recommend to the inexperienced bee-keeper to read 
this synopsis of monthly management, again and again, 
and to be sure that he fully understands and punctually 
discharges the appropriate duties of each month, neglect- 
ing nothing, and procrastinating nothing to a more con- 
venient season ; for, while bees do not require a large 
amount of attention, in proportion to the profits yielded 
by them, they must have it at the proper time and in the 
right wag. Those who complain of their unprofitable- 
ness, are often as much to blame as a farmer who neglects 
to take care of his stock, or to gather his crops, and then 
denounces his employment' as yielding only a scanty 
return on a large investment of capital and labor. 

bee-ejeeper's axioms. 

There are a few first principles in bee-keeping which 
ought to be as familiar to the Apiarian as the letters of 
his alphabet : 

1st. Bees gorged with honey never volunteer an attack. 

2nd. Bees may always be made peaceable by inducing 
them to accept of liquid sweets. 

3rd. Bees, when frightened by smoke or by drumming 
on their hives, fill themselves with honey and lose all dis- 
position to sting, unless they are hurt. 

4th. Bees dislike any quick movements about their 
hives, especially any motion which jars their combs. 

5th. Bees dislike the offensive odor of sweaty animals, 
and will not endure impure air from human lungs. 

6th. The bee-keeper will ordinarily derive all his profits 
from stocks, strong and healthy, in early Spring. 

7th. In districts where forage is abundant only for a 
16* 



370 THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 

short period, the largest yield of honey will be secured 
by a very moderate increase of stocks. 

8th. A moderate increase of colonies in any one season, 
will, in the long run, prove to be the easiest, safest, and 
cheapest mode of managing bees. 

9th. Queenless colonies, unless supplied with a queen, 
will inevitably dwindle away, or be destroyed by the 
bee-moth, or by robber-bees. 

10th. The formation of new colonies should ordinarily 
be confined to the season when bees are accumulating 
honey ; and if this, or any other operation must be per- 
formed, when forage is scarce, the greatest precautions 
should be used to prevent robbing. 

The essence of all profitable bee-keeping is contained in 
Oettl's Golden Rule: keep your stocks strong (p. 303). 
Xf you cannot succeed in doing this, the more money you 
invest in bees, the heavier will be your losses ; while, if 
your stocks are strong, you will show that you are a bee- 
master^ as well as a bee-keeper, and may safely calculate 
on generous returns from your industrious subjects. 



3* 



EXPLANATION OF PLATES OF HIVES. 



Description of Wood-Cuts of the vakious Styles of 
Movable-Comb Hives, with Bills of Stock for 
making them. 

All the engravings,* except those which are in perspective, 
are on the scale of 1£ inches to the foot, so that every £ of an inch 
is an inch in a hive of full size. The thickness of stock used, is 
mostly £ths of an inch — inch hoards, when planed, being usually 
of that thickness — but the measurements can be easily varied, to 
6uit any required dimensions. In making a lot of hives (sec p. 332), 
the small pieces, which otherwise would be refuse, should be used 
for the frames. Good stock will prove much the cheapest in the 
end. 

Those not accustomed to longitudinal and cross sections, will 
be greatly assisted by the perspective views. In the longitudinal 
sections, the hive is represented as sawed in two, from front to 
rear, and in the cross sections, from side to side. All the parts 
supposed to be cut by the saw, are marked by cross lines ; the 
parts which, though not cut, would be seen after the cutting, are 
also represented. Any measurement may be verified, by applying 
an accurate rule to the sections. 

The reader will bear in mind, that those only who have pur- 
chased the patent right — Ministers of the Gospel excepted— -can 
legally use these hives. For terms, see p. 391. 

Figs. 1, 2, and 3, page 24, Hive No. 1. 
Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a hive of the simplest form, the 

• Since the publication of the second edition — for which most of these plates were 
engraved — some changes have been made in the construction of the hives, all of 
which are fully noted in the bills of stock, though not, in all cases, shown in the 
plates. 

371 



372 EXPLANATION OF PLATES. 

cover being removed, to show one of the frames. Fig. 2 is a ver 
tical longitudinal section, and Fig. 3, a vertical cross section of 
the same 

(b) Two- pieces, front and rear of hive, 14-|" x 8-J" x|". (c) 
Two pieces, sides of hive, 19-|" x 10" x J", with outside lower 
edges beveled off — when a movable bottom-board is used — to 
avoid crushing bees, or giving lurking-places to moths or worms. 
When the bottom-board is fixed in the hive, the sides should 
be 19f xlOf'xf", and the bottom-board 25£" x 14-J" x$", 
clamped on the under side. If another hive, of the same form, is 
put on the first, for surplus honey, as in Fig. 16 (p. 48), holes 
may be made through this bottom-board, as directed for Hives 
No. 2. (d) Two pieces, strips on upper part of hive, front and 
rear, forming rabbets for the frames to rest upon, 15-J" x 1-J" x-|". 
(/) Movable cover, 25£" x 18"x-|". This should be tongued 
and grooved together, and may also be rain-grooved, as shown for 
the top of the hive in Fig. 23 (p. 96). The grain of the wood 
should run from front to rear. (g) Two pieces, clamps on 
under side of cover, 18" x 2" x£". The front and rear (b) 
of the hive should be nailed between the sides (c), flush with 
their ends, but with the upper edges of (b) -§■" below the upper 
edges of (c) . Some may prefer that the grain of the wood, both 
of the bottom-board and cover, should run from side to side, 
instead of from front to rear. 

Movable Comb-Frames. Figs. 1, 4, and 22, pages 20, 24, 88. 

(t) Two pieces, top, 19|" 1" x-^" ; bottom, I7f"x$"x|\ 
(u) Ends or vertical pieces,* two pieces, 8f" x -|" x -J." (u) One 
piece, triangular- top comb-guide, 1 6|" X £" x $" x -£". This should 
be nailed to the top of the frame, centrally with regard to its 

* The triangular pieces, represented in many of the engravings, not answering 
the ends intended, I return to the shape originally used. The Winter passage («;, 
which was suggested f r trial, is also discarded, Mr. Cary's method (p. 837) being 
much better. 




I 

II 



EXPLANATION OF PLATES. 373 

width and length, and the frame may be stiffened by driving one 
nail through each end into it. If comb is used for guides (pp. 72, 
130), or the other devices for securing straight comb succeed, those 
triangular guides may be dispensed with. 

Double Movable Comb-Frames. Fig. 73, Plate X., page 96. 

This frame is made up of the same parts as two single frames, 
differing from them only by having their end pieces in common, 
which are 8£" x 2i" x £". In putting this frame together, if the 
triangular guides are used, they are first to be nailed, as in the single 
frames, centrally to the top pieces : each top piece, when nailed 
to the end pieces, projects over their edges a sixteenth of an inch, 
and the bottom pieces come flush with the edges of the end pieces. 
As one side of a comb is usually a fac simile of the other, these 
double frames, which are proposed for trial, may answer a valu- 
end, in connection with the single ones. They rest very firmly 
on the rabbets, and are easily adjusted and handled. 

All the parts of the movable frames should be cut out by cir- 
cular saws (p. 332), and the measurements should be exact, so 
that the frames when nailed together may be square. If they are 
not strong and perfectly square, the proper working of the hive 
will be greatly interfered with. Ten single, or five double frames, 
equally distant from each other, are placed in the lower hive, and 
nine single frames, or four double frames and one single one. may 
be placed in the upper hive, for surplus honey. 

Comb-Guides. Fig. 72, Plate VI., page 48. 

This figure shows the form of a metallic stamp, invented by 
Mr. Wehring, of Bavaria, Germany, for printing or stamping the 
foundations of the combs upon the under side of the frames. 
After the outlines are made, he rubs melted wax over them, and 
scrapes off ail that does not sink into the depressions. Mr. Wehr- 
ing represents this device as enabling him to dispense with guide- 
combs, the bees appearing to be delighted to have their work thus 
accurately sketched out for them. In practice it is found to be 
inferior to the triangular comb guides. Mr. R. Colvin has in- 



374 EXPLANATION OF PLATES. 

vented a device" for securing the combs not merely straight, but 
of uniform thickness. It will be tested on a large scale, this season 
(I860), and the results given to the public. In those instances in 
which it has been tried, it has succeeded admirably. 

Gage-Block for fastening the movable frames together. Figs. 6, 
7, and 8, page 24. 

Fig. 6 is a view of the front of this block, Fig. 8 a view of the 
back, and Fig. 7 is a cross-section. 

(a) Foundation board, 2H"x9£"x£". (b b) Guides, for sides 
(u u), of frames, fastened to (a), equally distant from its ends, and 
so as to leave 17£" between (b b), and i" from upper edge of (a) 
to ends of (bb). (c c) Buttons for holding sides of frames (mm), 
against (bb), 6£" x H"x£". (//) Guides in which the top tri- 
angular comb-guide is placed, in order to have the top strip [t) 
nailed thereto; each piece (/) is 21£" x2"x|", and they are 
beveled from one edge, back T y, and are then fastened to (a), 
forming a triangular groove, each side of which is -£". Two tri- 
angular pieces, £" x i" x £" X 2f", are fastened (Fig. 6) at each 
end of the groove, (g) Guide-strip, $" x^"x 19£, fastened to 
(/) i" from its beveled edge, (h) Guide-strip, £" x ^" x 3|", 
fixed on and across the pieces (//), V from their ends. To nail 
the frames together, put the triangular comb-guide (u) in the 
groove formed by the pieces (//) : place the piece (t) on the top 
of (u), and against the guides (g) and (A), and nail it to (u) with 
two brads each about 2" from the end. Proceed in this way until 
all the triangular guides are nailed to the top strips. Now turn 
over the gage-block and secure the vertical pieces (uu) against 
the guides (bb), by the buttons (cc), and nail the bottom (t) to 
(u u), with two brads at each end. Turn the gage-block, and place 
the top of the frame (J), whnh has before been nailed to the guide 

* This device is substantially the same with the one alluded to on p. 208 ; Mr 
Colvin's, however, was invented before mine. 






EXPLANATION OF PLATES. 375 

(u), in its proper position, and nail it to (uu) with two biads in 
each end. 

Fig. 10, page 28, shows the arrangement of the circular saw tc 
cut the triangular comb-guides. 
The first piece cut is waste ; as fast as a guide is sawed, the 
piece from which it is cut must be turned over, end for end.* 

Surplus Honey Box. Fig. 24, page 120. 
Top and bottom, two pieces, £" x 6" x 5$". Bore in the centre 
of the bottom, with If" centre-bit, -fa" deep from the outside of 
the box, and then bore through with 1£" bit. Sides, two pieces, 
i" x 5#" wide x 5" high. Ends, glass, two pieces, 5" x 6", cut 
from glass 10"xl2". A block, 5£"x5"x5|", will be found 
very convenient to nail the. boxes together upon. 

Movable Stool for Hives. Figs. 16 and 17, page 44. 
Two pieces for uprights, or legs ; rear leg 7" wide, front leg 5'' 
wide, both 20" xf. Take two pieces. 32"xl*"xJ", and nail 
them to the top edge of the rear leg, flush with its ends, and pro- 
jecting beyond it 4" ) nail them also to the front leg in the same 
way, but let them project 9". Then brace the legs and top strips, 
as shown in the figure. Hive No. 1, and any of the forms of Hive 
No. 2, will sit upon this stool, between the top strips \ cotton 
cloth (p. 279) is tacked to the alighting board, and to the longest 
ends of the top strips. Hive No. 5, also sits upon this stool, the 
top strips going Detween the clamps on the bottom of the hive. 
Hive No. 4 must be set upon the strips of this stool. 

Movable Blocks for Entrance-Regulators,! Figs. 11, 16, 17, and 

18, pages 28, 44, and 48. 

Fig. 11 is a right-angled triangle, £" thick x4"x5|"x7. In 

the bottom, grooves are cut §-" deep x|" wide, as traps for the 

larvae of the bee-moth. Two of these blocks, made right and 

* To save beveling the first edge of the board by hand, the edge of the angular 
bed on the saw bench should be placed against the gage, with the saw passing 
through it, instead of against the saw, as represented in the figure. 

t Figs. 12 and 19, pages 28 and 48, show the old arrangement for uniting the 
Non-Swarmer with the entrance-blocks. 



376 EXPLANATION OF PLATES. 

left, are used for a hive. By changing the position of these blocka 
on the alighting-board (see Fig. 18, page 48, in which some of 
the positions are shown), the size of the entrance to the hive may 
be varied in a great many ways, and the bees always directed to 
it by the shape of the block, without any loss of time in search- 
ing for it. 

Non-Swarmer. Figs. 5 and 17, pages 24 and 44. * 
Two pieces, ±". thick x4£" long x I" wide : saw a slot through 
one of these, in the centre of its length and width, 2" long x ^" 
wide : bevel the other piece to each edge, leaving a surface of £" 
in the middle of the width, the bevels being made for 2" only in 
the centre of the length of the piece ; these pieces are to be fast- 
ened together with a piece between them at each end, J" thick 
x 1£" long x£" wide, and the whole together then beveled off 
equally at each end, so as to make the length of one of the sides, 
where the passage appears, 2 T *g-". A metallic slide, to be used in 
the slot, is 1" wide x 1^-|" long, and is cut away on one edge to 
the exact depth of ^", and on the other, ^", leaving projections 
at each end, of £" each, which serve as feet, and rest on the plane 
surface left on the lower piece : sheet brass is the best metal for 
the slide.^ The Non-Swarmer may be varied from the above in 
length and bevel of the ends, so as to fit between the entrance- 
blocks in any of the positions shown in Fig. 18, page 48. 

Movable Divider. No Figure 
One piece, 18 J" x 9-f" x £", each end made £" beveling, for easy 
adjustment; the bevels should be parallel to each other. One 
piece, -§-" x#" x 19f ', nailed on the first piece, like the top piece 
(t) of the movable comb frames. By this divider the size of any 
hive may be diminished at will. 

Temporary Movable Partition. No Figure. 
14J"x8£"x£", from each end, cut to within 1" of the upper 

* By making the slot wider, a wooden slide might be made to answer. Theso 
measurements may have to be slightly varied for the Italian bees. This Non- 
Swarmer is designed to prevent alterations by warping or swelling, and to allow 
of adjustment, without confusing the bees. It may also be used for excluding or 
confining the drones ; see pp. 225, 326. It has not yet been fully tested. 



EXPLANATION OF PLATES. 377 

edge, I" ; into the opposite, or short edge, drive two nails near the 
ends of the partition, letting them project J". These nails serve 
the purpose of feet to support the weight of the honey which is stored 
.n the short frames resting by one end on this partition. The par- 
tition is farther held, across the centre of the length of the hive, 
by two screws, one passing through each side of the hive into the 
partition, at the projections left upon the upper part of the ends. 
This partition is used only when a double set of small frames are 
put in a surplus honey-box of the same size as the lower hive. 

Small Frames for Surplus Honey. 

Top, 9t"xli"xtfc". Bottom, 7*"x*"xi". Ends, or ver- 
tical pieces, two pieces, 8f"x *"**". Triangular comb-guide, 

(if used), erxrxrxr. 

Hive No. 2, with Observing-glass at the back. 

See perspective drawings (Figs. 16 and 17, p. 44), and the ver- 
tical longitudinal section (Fig. 9, p. 28), and the vertical cross- 
section (Fig. 13, p. 36), in which sectional drawings, and this 
bill of stock, and the two others immediately succeeding it, parts 
that'are similar are marked with similar letters. This hive, in 
one of the three forms given, is recommended as the best for gen- 
eral use. 

(a) Bottom-board, 24t"x 15" X*", tongued and grooved to- 
gether, with the grain of the wood running across the hive ; the 
board to be rabbeted from one surface, at each edge, across the 
grain, ^"x^", to fit into grooves formed in the sides (c) ; six 
holes are to be bored from the largest surface of this board, first 
with a 1J" centre-bit. ^" deep, and then through with a 1£" bit* 
The centres of these holes are to be in the intersections of lines 
gased 3|" from the centre of the width of the board, and 4|", 
101", and 16*", from the rear of it. (b) Front of hive, 14i"x 
8£"xi"; nail this between sides (c), *" below their upper edges, 
and 4" from their notched ends, (c) Sides of hive, twa pieces, 

* These holes, when not in use, are closed most conveniently by small covers cut 
out of refuse tin with a punch. They should be made only in the bottom-boards 
of those hives intended to be used one over another. 



378 EXPLANATION OF PLATES. 

24f" x 10£" x $" : notch out of one corner of each, to receive por* 
tico roof j 4" on the length of the pieces X 2£" deep, and ^" 
from the unnotched edge of each piece, make a groove to receive 
the bottom, -fa" square. Gage 4" on from the notched ends, and 
across the side pieces (c). for a line by which to set the outside of 
the front, which should come % " below the upper edges of the 
sides, (d) Ledges around sides and rear end of hive-body, nailed 
thereon 1£" down from top edge; two pieces, 2 Of" x $" x £", and 
one piece, 17*"x*"x*". (e) Roof of portico, I7|"x4*"x£", 
beveled off from \" thick at front edge, back 2£" to full thick- 
ness, front edge rounded over from upper side only. # — One 
piece, 15%" X 1±" X £", nailed to the upper side of (e) flush with its 
rear edge, and in the centre of its length. — Cover for hive, 
25i"x 19" x£", tongued and grooved together, and rain-grooved, 
the grain of the wood running front and rear of the hive. 
— Cleats for cover, two pieces, 19" x li" x £", nailed on the under 
side of cover, flush with the ends. — Observing-glass at rear of 
hive, 14" X 5"; an outer glass of the same size can be used, if 
desired, for additional protection in Winter. — Shutter over 
glass, 14" x£" x 5i" wide outside, and 51" wide inside, the bevel 
being made on the upper edge. — Clamps on this shutter^ two 
pieces, 51" x 14" x £", nailed upon outside, each projecting ±" over 
the end of the shutter, to cover the open joints. A piece, 14&"x 
2|"x£", is nailed to a piece, 15£"x l£"x 1", centrally with re- 
gard to length, and so that one edge of both will be flush with 
each other. The ends of the longest piece are made dove-tailing, 
to fit in the sides (c), as shown in Fig. 16, p. 44 : the lower or 
flush edges of both pieces coming $•" above the bottom-board. The 
lower outer corner of this sash-rail, and the upper outer corner 
of the bottom- board, maybe rabbeted a little to receive a covering 
of wire cloth, and the ventilator so formed may be furnished with 
a button slide arrangement, similar to those shown in the Fig., p. 
13.f The upper sash rail is made up of a piece, 14£" X li" x £" 

* Those parts marked with a ( — ) , are not lettered in any of the figures. 

f The ventilating passage may be closed by a strip of wood which nearly fills it • 
or it may be rggulated by a slide as shown in the engraving on page 13. The 
objection to the strip is, that bees would be very apt to stick the strip fast with 
propolis within the ventilating passage. Mr. Wheaton uses no back ventilator 



EXPLANATION OF PLATES. 379 

nailed to a piece, 14J"x£"xl£" wide on one side, and 2£" on 
the other ; gage f" from the square edge of the beveled piece, on 
its narrowest side, for a mark to set the other piece to in nailing, 
and then nail the upper sash rail in place between the sides of 
the hive, the beveled piece being flush with the tops and ends 01 
the sides. — Strips to hold the observing-glass, £" wide x ±" 
thick, are nailed all around the place left to receive it, ^" from 
the interior of the hive. Two such hives, having one cover, are 
placed one on the top of the other (facing the same way), the 
upper one being designed to receive surplus honey, either in boxes 
placed over the holes in the bottom-board, or on frames. 

Hive No. 2, without observing-glass. 

This hive is similar to "Hive No. 2, with observing-glass," 
with the exception that those parts rendered necessary by the use 
of glass are omitted. The rear is 15" x 8£"x£", and is halved 
into the sides (c), flush with their ends, and £" below their tops. 
The sides (c) are 231" long, but otherwise are the same as in the 
previous hive. 

A strip, which forms the rear rabbet of the hive, in which the 
frames rest, is 151" x 2£" x£"; this is nailed across the rear of 
the hive, to, and flush with, the tops of the sides (c). As the 
back ventilator will admit of all necessary inspection for general 
purposes (p. 365, note), a hive of this form will probably be best 
for those largely engaged in bee-culture. 

Hive No. 2, with box-cover. Figs. 9* and 13, pages 28 and 36. 

This hive may be made like either of the preceding hives, and 
has, in addition, a box-top, designed to cover small honey-boxes 
placed over the hive, or a large box. arranged to receive frames 
for the storage of surplus honey. The following comprises the 
additions referred to : 

(/) Honey-board, 2H" X 15!" x£", tongued and grooved, and 

but depends upon a current of air from the front entrances of the lower and upper 
hive, the upper one being used for storing surplr.fi honey on frames. The amount 
Df ventilation needed will depend much upon climate and location. 

* Fig. 9 shows the construction, when neither observing-glass nor back venti- 
lator aie used, and when the fro at and rear of the hive are of double thickness. 



380 EXPLANATION OF PLATES. 

held together by cleats tongued and grooved to the ends of the 
board. Bore such holes through this board as are described in 
bottom-board (a), and at proper distances to receive the size of 
small honey-boxes used, (k) Honey-box cover, like (/), without 
the holes, (h) Front and rear of honey-box. front 14£" X 91" x i" ; 
rear, two pieces, 14£" x 1|" X £" ; nail the front between the sides, 
the lower edges flush,, as is also one of the rear pieces, the other 
being -g-" below the top edges of the sides, (i) Two pieces, sides of 
honey-box, 1 91" x 10" X i". (j) Ledges at front and rear of honey- 
box, two pieces, 15%" x l£" x £", nailed on flush with the top edges 
of the sides, (m) Observing-glass in rear of honey-box, 14" x 6". 
(n) Strips to hold observing-glass, i" X £", nailed all around the 
space left for the glass, and within T V' °f tne interior of the honey- 
box, (o) Top of box cover, tongued and grooved together, and' 
rain-grooved, 26|"x 19£"x£". (p) Two pieces, front and rear 
of upper part of box cover, 17£"x8£" x£" ; these pieces are 
nailed between the sides, (q) Two pieces, sides of upper part of 
box cover, 24i" x 8£" x £". (r) Two pieces, front and rear of 
lower part of box cover. 17£" X 5" x£". (s) Two pieces, sides 
of lower part of box cover, 24£"x5"x£". (w) Four pieces, 
2" x 1" x i", buttons for holding the upper to the lower part of the 
cover, to which they are nailed ; the upper inside part of the but- 
tons is beveled off, to allow the upper part of the cover to set 
down readily on the lower part. The side pieces, (q) and (s), 
must be halved across the ends, to receive the front and rear; the 
upper and the lower parts of the box cover may be halved where 
they join, as shown in Hive No. 4, Fig. 23, p. 96. 

A ventilator for the top cover should be made by boring a num- 
ber of f" holes in the rear piece, as close as convenient to the 
roof; this ventilator may be opened and closed by means of the 
arrangement shown in the drawing opposite page 13. 

Upper or Winter Entrance. Figs. 1, 2, 3, and 17, pages 20 and 44. 

In all the Hives No. 2, a winter entrance for the bees may be 
made to open upon the portico roof for an alighting-board ; gage 
from the upper side of the piece, forming the front rabbet, where 
the frames rest, 1" and 1£", and then mortise a slot through, 3" 




EXPLANATION OF PLATES. 381 

long, in the centre ol the length of the piece, between tte gage 
marks, and slanting upwards, so that the lower side of the slot 
will come even with the top of the piece on which the frames 
rest. This entrance has been found on trial to be very important 
where bees are wintered in the open air. The lower entrance 
should be closed in winter. 

Hive No. 3. Observing-Hive (p. 332). Figs. 14 and 15, page 36. 

tFig. 14, is a side view, and Fig. 15. a vertical cross-section. 
(a) Base-board, 24£" X 4i" x £". An entrance-hole, £", is bored 
3 i- inches deep into the end of (a), and two holes are bored in its 
centre, \" in diameter and \\" from centre to centre, the wood 
being cut out between them, (b) Bottom of hive. 2£" x 1 8&" x ■£" ; 
make a rabbet at both upper corners, |" on x^" deep: start a 
|" hole, l" from the end, and bore slanting, to meet entrance-hole 
in (a), and make a hole in the centre to match centre hole in (a), 
for a ventilator, and cover with wire-gauze on the inside, (c) 
Front and rear of hive, 1J" x 2£" x 10-1" ; rabbet the inner corners, 
up and down; ±" x -§-" : make a ventilator in each piece, like the 
one in (a) : f " from the upper ends, cut in £" ; and -|" from the 
lower end, cut in £". (d) Side strips, f-" xl"x 20£ " ; on one cor- 
ner of each, rabbet on, £", and in, V for the glass, (e) Movable 
cover, 21 1" x-4i" xi"; holes may be made in this cover, as in 
Fig. 21, over which glass receptacles for honey may be placed. 
(/) Glass, two panes, 9£"xl8£". (g) Alighting-board, 4" X 4£" 
X't". (h) Clamps on base-board, 4£" x 2" x £". (i and j) Clamps 
on cover, and ledges on hive, four pieces, 4±" x i" x V. 

J Hive No. 4, Double-story Glass Hive. Figs. 19, 20, 21, 22, and 
23, pages 48, 68, 88, and 96. 

This and the following hive are not intended for general use in 
the Apiary, but for those who want one or more elegant hives. 

Fig. 19 is a perspective view with the cover down. Fig. 20 is 
a perspective view with the cover elevated, so as to show the 
working of the bees, both in the main hive and the upper honey- 
box. Fig. 21 is a plan of the lower part of the hive, showing the 
surplus honey- board in place, and the holes made in it to allow 



382 EXPLANATION OF PLATES. 

the bees to pass up into the surplus honey-receptacles. On This 
board, receptacles of glass or wood, of any size or shape, may be 
set (see Glass hive opposite to the Frontispiece), instead of the 
upper box. Fig. 22 is a vertical longitudinal section, and Fig. 23 
a vertical cross-section. This hive has glass on four sides, for 
purposes of general observation. A cornice under the projecting 
roof of the cover would improve its appearance. 

(a) Main bottom of hive, tongued and grooved, 31" x 20£" x -J-". 
(b) Outer * bottom of hive, 27 £" x 18£" x £". (c) Rabbeted strips 
for outer bottom, two pieces, 29£" X \\" X £", and two pieces, 
17 J'' x H"xi". (d) Front and rear of lower outer case of hive, 
one rabbet in upper outer corner of each, y 7 ^-" x ■£$" ; front, 1 li" x 
20|" x£"; cut out of the centre of the lower edge, 14£"x£"; 
rear. 4£" x 20f " x f". (e) Sides of lower outer part, with rabbets ' 
the same as front and rear (for form of this, see Fig. 20), two 
pieces, 311" long x£" thick, 4±" wide at one end, and 12£" wide 
at 4£" from the other end, where a notch is cut out. 1-^" deep 

x4" long. (/) Roof of alighting-board, 23£"x4i"x£"; £" 
thick in rear, and \" thick in front, (g) Board under which bees 
pass into the hive, 14£" x 4" x£". (h) Front posts of lower hive, 
two pieces. 9£" long x 4" x £". (i) Rear posts of lower hive, 
two pieces, 10" long xlf'xi". with tenon, £"x£"x£", on one 
end. (j) Front and rear strips of lower hive, on which the 
frames hang, two pieces, 1 5£" X 1 £" X £", with rabbet, £"x|", 
and notch, £" x £", cut at each end from upper side, (k) Side 
strips from post to post, in lower hive, 21£"x£"x£", with notch, 
i" deep x If", cut in the under side of each end. (I) Spare 
honey-board, 17£" x 21£" x£", nine holes bored If" diameter 

x-^" deep, and then bored through with a H" bit; these holes 
when not in use are covered with pieces of tin, cut out with a 
punch ; they may be bored plain, and covered with pieces of glass 
or wood, (m) Front and rear of lower part of cover, 6f " X 20£" 

X |", rabbets (Fig. 22) T 7 ¥ " x T ^", on both upper and lower edges 
(n) Sides of lower part of cover, two pieces, 27£" from front to 
rear x 61" x £", with rabbets ^" x ^" ) for shape of these pieces. 

♦This outer bottom maybe dispensed with, and clamps, 27%x2x% lnche^ 
noiled lengthwise to the bottom of the hive, about 1 inch under and from its sides, 
for getting hold of the hive to lift it, and to prevent dampness. 



EXPLANATION OF PLATES. 383 

see Fig. 20. (o) Front and rear of upper part of cover, one piece, 
5f , 'x20I"xi". and one piece, 13*"x 20J"x|". (p) Sides of 
upper part of cover, two pieces, each 5|" and 13$-" x 27|" x |", 
with rabbets. ^" x T ^'' ; for shape, see Fig. 20. (q) Top of cover, 
tongued and grooved from front to rear, and rain-grooved on top 
(Figs. 19 and 23), 24*" x 30J" x J", (r) Honey-box cover, 21 1" 
xl9f" x$". (s) Clamps for honey-box cover, two pieces, 21}" 
x $" x $". (2.) Triangular checks to hold the cover when elevated, 
two pieces, If" x If" x 2i" x f\ (3.) Four buttons, H" x 2" x i\ 
(w) Posts of surplus honey-box, four pieces, If" x 8V' x V > (#) 
Front and rear bottom-strips of honey-box, two pieces, l£"x 15£" 
x£". (y) Side-bottom strips of honey-box, two pieces, 21£"xf" 
x I" : («r) and (y) are halved together at ends, (z) Front, rear, 
and side top pieces of honey-box, made up of two strips, l£"x£" 
x 17$", two strips, l£" x f" x 2 If", halved together at ends ; and 
two strips, 17*" X I" x f", two strips, 19*" x £" x f". ( 4.) Clamps 
for spare honey-board, two pieces, 21£"x*"x£". Glass, two 
pieces 14x9, four pieces 18x9, and two pieces 14x8, for the 
double glass of lower hive : two pieces 18x8, and two pieces 
14x8, for the spare honey-box. 

Hive No. 5, Single-story Glass Hive, as made by Mr. Colvin, see 
drawing on page 389 See perspective on page 13 ; also the 
Figures referred to in Hive No. 4. 

(a) Bottom-board, J" thick x 25" lengthwise, and 36£" across 
the grain of the wood, in two pieces only, tongued and grooved 
together, and rabbeted on under side of ends T V on, x ~^" deep, 
forming tongues on ends at top edge T V x T V ', which are let into 
sides, (d) Front and rear ends of case, bottom part; front, one 
piece, 25 j" x 9 J" x J" ; cut out from centre of length on lower 
edge, 14 \" x !■"• rabbet top outside of edge 1 ^-" x 1-jV'j rear , 
25£" x 3 \" x \", rabbet outside edge at top -?$" x -^" and cut out 
from centre of length same as front, (e) Sides of case, lower 
part, two pieces, 36|" x 11 \" wide, at 4 -]-£" back from front end 
x \" thick and 3|" wide at the other end ; at the wide end, where 
slant terminates, cut out for roof of portico, l r y x 4^", and 
rabbet the outside of slant edge, T \" x T 7 F " ; cut a groove ~^" up 
from bottom edge, inside, tV' x tk" the whole length of sides, to 



384 EXPLANATION OF PLATES. 

let in tongued ends of bottom ;* rabbet back end inside, from y* 
up from bottom edge to top edge, -1$" deep x \" on, to let in back 
end ; 4|" back from front end, If" up from bottom edge, cut groove 
T V ' deep x J" wide to top edge, to let in front ; for shape of (e), 
(n), and (p), see Fig. 20, p. 48. Portico roof, one piece, 27" x 5f 
x \", bevel from |", at front edge, back T y on top side, to full 
thickness, and round the front edge from the upper side, (g) 
Cover of passage-way into hive, one piece, 14f " x 6" x ±" let into 
front posts, \", full thickness, \ up from bottom ends ; bore four 
holes, as directed in (7), in the centre of its width, the centre of 
the end holes being 3}" from the ends; space the others equally 
between. (Ji) Front posts, two pieces, \" x 9}" x 6". (t) Rear 
posts, two pieces, I" x 9 ]", 6" wide at bottom and If" at top, 
slope commencing 3 \" up from bottom ends of posts, and made 
"ogee" in form; these posts are fastened to the case by screws 
passing through the front and back end boards of it into their 
edges, and are not mortised into the bottom-board, but rest on it; 
in each post, \' up from bottom end, cut a groove \' deep, ~" wide, 
entirely across their width (6"), to let in covers of " passage-way,!' 
and "back ventilator;" also mortise, in one edge, \' up from bot- 
tom end, §" wide x J" long x §" deep, for bottom rail of sides of 
"bee-chamber." (/) Rear and front top rails of "bee-chamber," 
two pieces, 15|" x 1J" x I": rabbet one edge J" wide x |" deep, 
and cut from the top of ends to the depth of rabbet, f " on. (k) Side 
top rails, two pieces, 20" x I" x \". Bottom side rails, two pieces, 
19" x I" x £ " ; tenon on ends §" long x |" x J" in centre. (I) Sur- 
plus honey-board, ^" x 2 If" x 15 J", the grain of the wood to run 
crosswise of the board, which is to have clamps, tongued and 
grooved against the end of the grain, and form part of the above 
dimensions ; 9 holes are to be bored for surplus honey-boxes ; they 
are first bored T y deep, with If" centre-bit, and then through 
with 1£" bit; these holes are arranged in three rows, one in the 
centre, and the others 2|" from the side edges of the board, the 

* The sides are toe-nailed to bottom-boards with four nails only, one on each side 
of tongue and groove in bottom-board, and about one inch apart, so that when the 
bottom-board swells and shrinks, the joint in it is kept closed and stationary, while 
swelling forces the edges of bottom-board out, front and back, and shrinking draws 
them in again. Sliding in the grooves in the sides, which prevent its warping. 



EXPLANATION OF PLATES. 385 

front and back end holes of each row being 3f" from the ends, (m) 
Front and rear of case, middle part * two pieces, 9|" x'25\" x \" ; 
rabbet out T 7 F " x T 7 F " on inside of lower edges, and same on 
outside of upper edges, (n) Sides of case, middle part, two pieces 
(for shape of these, see Fig. 20, p. 48), 32|" long x 9|" wide 
(measuring on a straight line from front to rear of case for length, 
and square across this section for width); rabbet out inside 
lower edges and outside upper edges, same as ends ; also rabbet 
r V' in x ¥ " on, inside ends, to let in end pieces, (o) Front and 
rear of case, upper part, front, 25\" x 7 J" x J" ; rear, 25]" x 14" 
x J" j rabbet out inside lower edges, j^" x ^g". (p) Sides of case, 
upper part, 32|" long x 14" wide at back end, and 7 J wide at front 
end x J" ; rabbet inside lower edges, 1 V„ x -^", and inside at ends, 
■fa" in x 4" on, to let in ends (for shape see Fig. 20, p. 48). (q) Top 
of upper part of case, five pieces, of equal width and length, form- 
ing together 30" x 36" x J", tongued and grooved together, and 
rain-grooved t (see Fig. 23, p. 72). Collateral side honey -boards, 
for surplus honey-glasses, two pieces, 30}" x 4}" x |" ; bore six 
holes, as directed in (I), in the centre of width, the end ones 2" 
from ends, and the rest equally spaced between.! Collateral rear 
honey-board, for surplus honey* glasses, same as covered passage- 
way into hive, let into posts, and perforated with holes as in (I). 
Cleats for under side of collateral side honey-boards, six pieces, 
4}" x i" x \", one of which is nailed under each end, and one 
under the middle of each side honey-board. Collateral front honey- 
board, one piece, 15 J" x 6}" x J", clamped across the ends, same 
as (I), and bore holes same as (g) ; frames may be hung in the 
space under this honey-board, and glasses on it, or the glasses 
may be placed instead of frames (as preferred) to receive the 
surplus honey ; two pieces, 6" x f " x J", are nailed on outer edges 
of tops of front posts, (h), to form rabbets for frames. Triangu- 

* The middle part need not be made, unless the hive is intended to be used with 
two stories, as in Hive No. 4. 

f By increasing the width and length of this top so as to project 4£ in. over sides, 
and placing turned " drops " or other ornaments under the eave it may be, at 
small cost, made highly ornamental. See drawing on page — . 

% When it is desired to close the opening under side-rails of bee-chamber, turn 
the collateral side honey-boards upside down 



386 EXPLANATION OF PLATES. 

lar checks to hold the case when elevated, two pieces, 3" longx If" 
x J" at one end, and -J" x -g-" at the other. Guides on outside of 
case (see Fig. 19, p. 48), four pieces, 1|" x 2" x f ". Cover to up- 
per ventilator of case, one piece, 24" x 1" x |" hung on buttons 
with screws; this ventilator is made by boring holes about f-" in 
diameter in the rear of upper part of case, \" below (a). 

No. 2, Box Hive, as made by Mr. Colvin, see drawing on page 390, 
with box-cover and observing glass in rear end. 

Bottom (in two pieces only, plowed and grooved together, the 
grain of the wood running across the hive), 24 J" x 14 J " x £" ; rabbet 
across under side of ends 1 %" on, y$" in, forming tongue -f%" x T y on 
upper side of ends, which are let into groove in sides. Sides, two 
pieces, 24f " x 10J" x J", cut out from front end on top edge, 4" x 
1\" deep, for portico roof ; on inside, f^" up from bottom edge, cut 
a groove ^" x -^ ,f the entire length, to receive tongue on bottom- 
board; 4" back from front end, from If" up from bottom edge, cut 
a groove yV' x J" to within |" of the top edge to let in front; 
(these sides are nailed to bottom same as No. 5). Portico roof 
one piece, 17^" x 4f " x |" ; bevel on top side, to \" thick at front 
edge, back 2 f" to full thickness : front edge rounded from upper 
side. Front, one piece, 14 J" x 8 J" x I", let into sides -f$" at 
each end. Observing -glass in rear, 14" x 6"; strips to form 
rabbet for glass, -£" x \", nailed all around the space left for the 
glass, and within T y of inside of hive. Rear end, two pieces, 
14 J" x If" x |", one of these nailed to a piece 15£" x 1}" x \", so 
that the bottom edges will be flush with each other, is to be dove- 
tailed into the ends of sides \" up from the top side of bottom- 
board, the other to be nailed to a piece 14|" x \" x 2 \", on one 
side, and If" on the other, the top edge of the inside piece f " below 
the outside piece ; then nail these pieces between the sides of 
hive, so that the square edge and widest side come flush with the 
ends and tops of sides. Cover for observing -glass, one piece, 
14" x \" x 6|" inside x 6|" outside, the bevel being made on 
the upper edge ; clamps on this cover, two pieces, 6§" x 1£" x \", 
screwed in the middle and nailed at ends on the outside of cover, 
each projecting \" over its end to cover the joint. Ledges around 



EXPLANATION OF PLATES. 



387 



sides and ends, to support the box-cover, &c., screwed on f" down 
from top edge of hive ; two pieces (sides), 21|" x |" x I" ; one piece 
(back), 17|" x I" x \" ; one piece (front), 15J" x J" x f", this last 
piece to be nailed on the top side of portico roof; notch out of centre 
of length, 3" long x -jY', for winter entrance. Honey-board, 21" x 
15|" x ^"(in two pieces only), plowed and grooved together ; clamps 
tongued and grooved against ends and forming part of its dimen- 
sions, and toe-nailed to clamps ^" each side of the groove only ; 
six holes are bored in this, same size as in Hive iSTo. 5, in two 
rows from front to back, and three rows across, at the intersections 
of lines gauged 3J" from its sides, and 4f" x lOf" x 16f" from 
either front or back ends. Box-cover, front and rear, two pieces, 
16 §" x 8f " x J", cut out of centre of bottom edge of front, 3" x T y, 



for winter entrance. Sides, two pieces, 23$" x 8| 



s y 



rabbet 



at ends, -J" on, -fa" in, to let in ends : bore five holes in rear end, 
for ventilation, with f " centre-bit, 2" from each end, and 3 j" from 
centre to centre, within \" of top edge. Cover for ventilator, one 
piece, 15" x 1" x |", held in its place by two buttons. Top of 
box-cover, four pieces, 26V' x |" x 5^" ; when tongued and grooved 
together, rain-grooved on each side of joints. Cover for back lower 
ventilator, one piece, 14f " x |" x 1£" rabbeted on under side and 
at ends £ " in x I" on ; button for securing this and the cover of 
observing-glass, 1±" x £" x |" ; cut out §" x £" from the lower end. 



EXPLANATION OF PLATES. 



389 




Oolvin Vo 5 




Colvin Ornamental 



10 



390 EXPLANATION OF PLATES. 




CoLvur No. % 



I 1ST ID E X. 



Adobe, for hives, 331 (note 2). 

Advantages required in complete hives, 
95-108. 

Adventure, amusing, in search of honey, 
254. 

After swarming, 120 ; causes and indi- 
cations of, 121 ; easily prevented in 
mov. comb hives, 124, 140 ; evils of, 
140 ; author's mode of obviating evils 
of, before invention of mov. comb 
hive, 140 (note) ; excessive, exposes 
stock to bee-moth, 243. 

After-swarms, easily strengthened in 
mov. comb hives, 140 ; when to ex- 
pect, 122 ; often issue in bad weather, 
122 ; often have more than one queen, 
122 ; seriously reduce strength of par- 
ent-stocks, 124, 140 ; wise arrangement 
concerning, 124 ; easily prevented in 
mov. comb hive, 124 ; weak, of little 
valuo, 140, 141 ; returning of, to parent 
stock, or doubling, unprofitable, 140 ; 
make few drone-cells the first season, 
184 (note). 

Age, of bees, 58 ; queen-bee, 49 ; of 
workers, proved from Italian bee, 59 
(note); signs of old, 59; of colonies, 
59 ; of queens, designated by the dip- 
pings of their wings, 223. 

Air, necessary for bees 88 ; bees need in 
Winter, 89, 338 ; pure, necessary for 
eggs, brood, and bees, 89 ; pure, neces- 
sary for health of man, 91 ; abundance 
of, "supplied by mov. comb hive, 94 ; 
new swarms require more than oldj 
281; cold, alarms bees, 311, (note); 
how to give in Winter, to mov. comb 
hives, 338. 

Air-tight stoves, deficient in ventilation, 
92. 

Alighting-board, should shelter from 
wind and wet, 103 ; improved by at- 
taching muslin, 279 (note): PI. V., 
Figs. 16, 17. 

Alsike, or Swedish white clover, 294 ; 
value of, for bees and stock, 295. 

American women, their sufferings from 
bad ventilation, 92. 

Analysis of royal jelly, 64. 



Anger of bees, 308-314 ; difficult to re- 
press, when once aroused, 170 ; excit- 
ed by the human breath, quick mo- 
tions, or jarring, 170 ; and sometimes 
by smoke, 168 (note); should not be 
violently repelled, 170 ; occasioned by 
disease, 256 (note); never necessary 
to provoke a colony to, 309 ; when 
provoked to, terribly vindictive, 310 
of dyspeptic bees, troublesome, 310 
bee-hat, a protection from, 310 ; But 
ler's directions how to prevent the 
rising of, 311 ; warm breath provokes, 
311 (note 2) ; when excited, how to 
act, 311 ; never excited away from 
home, 312 ; excited by disagreeable 
odors, and uncleanly persons, 313 ; 
aroused by a smeti of the bee-poison, 
314 ; and by rough and hairy substan- 
ces, 317. 

Ants, white, their fecundity, 32 ; some- 
times injure bees, 255 ; small, harm- 
less, 255 (note); extravagantly fond 
of honey, ^S7. 

Aphides, singular mode of propagation 
of, 42 ; description of, 285 ; cause of 
honey-dew, 285. 

Apiarians, see Bee-keepers. 

Apiaries, must be closely watched in 
swarming-season, 143 ; large, rendered 
difficult by natural swarming, 145 ; 
danger of crowded, 214 ; stocking, &c, 
279-284 ; in establishing, a knowledge 
of the honey resources of the locality 
important, 279 (and note 1) ; should be 
protected from high winds, and from 
cattle, and sweaty horses, 279 (note 
2) ; should be in sight of occupied 
rooms, 279 ; proper exposure for, 279 ; 
covered, objectionable, 280 ; shaded, 
agreeable to bees, 280 ; location of, 
how to change, 280 ; procuring bees 
for, 280 ; to secure bees in their hives, 
for removal to, 281 ; precautions to be 
observed in moving hives to, 281 ; 
transferring bees from common to 
mov. comb hive, for, 282 ; large, in 
Europe, 300 ; should be fenced against 
cattle and horses, 313. 

Apple-tree, yields much honey. 

Apricot-treo, honev-yiekling, 1 



392 



INDEX. 



Aristotle, noticed similarity of drone and 
worker-eggs, 42 ; observed that bees 
collect pollen from one kind of flower 
at a time, 83 ; observation of, concern- 
ing the flight and feeding of drones, 
224 (note) ; on the difficulties which 
perplex the Apiarian, 276 (note); de- 
scribed the Italian bee, 318. 

Artificial honey, recipe for, 276 (note). 

Artificial rearing of queens, 188 ; the 
process to be performed late in the 
day, 188 ; honey and water to be sup- 
plied to bees in, 189 ; when to confine 
bees in, 189. 

Artificial swarming, 143, 211 ; not per- 
formed by Columella, 147 (note) ; ill 
success of ancient method' of, 148 ; 
Huber's plan of, objectionable. 148 ; by 
dividing hives, unsatisfactory, 149 ; by 
removing full hives and substituting 
empty ones, worse, 150, 151 ; by self- 
colonizing hives, ineffectual, 151; causes 
of failure of, 152 ; has received great 
attention from author, 153 ; mode 
of, adapted to common hives, 154 ; 
cautious handling of combs in, need- 
ful, 155 (and note) ; how to prevent 
bees in, from returning to old stand, 
156, 157 ; not to be performed till 
drones appear, 158 ; tokens of the ab- 
sence or presence of the queen in, 158; 
how to proceed if the queen is absent, 
159 ; if done in morning or late in after- 
noon, how to proceed to secure bees 
for the old stock, 160 ; proportion of 
bees necessary for old stocks in, 160 ; 
new and decoy-hive should resemble 
that of parent stock, or adjoining hives 
be covered, 160 ; mode of, by exchang- 
ing hives, 160 ; by juxta-positiou, 161 ; 
by confining bees in parent stock, 161 ; 
preferable plan when to be done on a 
large scale, 162 ; rapidity of this plau, 
162 (note) ; its advantages, 163 ; Dr. 
Donhoff 's method of, 163 ; how to at- 
tach bees to new places, in, 163 (note) ; 
difficult for persons ignorant of the 
laws which control the breeding of 
bees, 164 ; easily performed with mov. 
comb hive, 164 : mode of performing 
it, 165 ; queen to be sought for, 166 ; 
supply of sealed queens provided for, 
166 ; great care necessary in" transfer- 
ring sealed queens, 167 ; should not be 
attempted in cool w r eather, or when 
dark, 167 ; early morning best time 
for, 167 ; little danger attending, 167, 
168 ; perfectly safe even at mid-day, 
168 ; sugar- water often better than 
smoke, useful in, 168 ; honey-water 
objectionable, 169 (note); caution in, 
enjoined, 170 ; how to apply sugar- 
water in, 170 ; how to remove frames 
in, 170 ; rapidly performed, 173 ; best 
mode of, 180, 181 ; supply of queens 
to mother-stocks, in, 182 ; obviates 



the risk of after-swarming, 184 ; capa- 
ble of safe expansion, 185 ; how to 
double stocks by, 185 ; Dzierzon's 
mode of, 186 ; author's mode of, for 
single apiaries, 186 ; mode of, re- 
sembling natural swarming, 186: 
mode of, by reversing position or 
hives, 187 ; how to provide a fufl 
supply of queens for, 188 ; nucleus for 
rearing queens for, 189; rapid in- 
crease of stocks by, 190 ; how to in- 
duce bees, in, to rear queens on con- 
venient parts of the comb, 191 ; how 
to secure adhering bees for the nuclei 
in, 192 (and note 2); queens, in, mado 
to supply several stocks with eggs, 
193 ; mother-stocks, in, should be 
kept strong, 199 ; most successful 
when forage is abundant, 199 ; haz- 
ardous in a crowded apiary, 200 ; how 
to supply stocks, in, with stranger- 
queens, 200 ; queen-cage for, 201 ; 
union of bees of different stocks in, 
203 ; practiced in ancient times, 210. 

Artificial swarms, where should be put, 
158 ; how to know whether they have 
a queen, 158 ; will accept a strange 
queen, 159 (note) ; cautions to be ob- 
served in locating, 159 ; how to make, 
by slightly changing position of parent 
stock, 161 ; how to form several with 
one natural swarm, 163 ; quickly 
made in mov. comb hive, 164, 173 : 
when to force, in cases of retarded 
swarming, 174 ; cannot be formed by 
merel} 7- transferring combs and bees 
into an empty hive, 175 ; caution 
against too rapid multiplication of, 
175 (note) ; the piling mode of forming, 
its advantages, 188 ; not to be increas- 
ed so as to reduce the strength of the 
mother stock, 199 ; attempts at rapid 
increase of, in vicinity of sugar -houses, 
&c, 199 ; difficult to form when forage 
is scarce, 199. 

Asters, furnish valuable pasturage for 
bees, 29S. 

Attica, its yield of wax and honey, 304. 

Austria, value of its honey crop, 304 

Axioms, bee-keeper's, 369. 



B. 



Baldenstein,Capt., on Italian bee, 318 ; 

ill-success of, in propagating pure 

breed, 319. 
Bar -hives, ancient, 210 (note) , author's 

experiments with, 14. 
Basket, used as a hiver, 133. 
Bass-wood, see Linden. 
Bears, destroyers of bees, 254. 
Bee-bob, to attract swarms, 132. 
Bee-bread, see Pollen. 
Bee-dress, use of, recommended, 132. 

209, 316. 






INDEX. 



393 



Bee-glue, see Propolis. 

Bee-hat, author's, how made, 316 (PL 
XL, Fig. 25.) 

Bee-journal, much needed in this coun- 
try, 22. 

Bee-keeping, depressed condition of, in 
America-, 13, 145 ; a fascinating pur- 
suit, 144, 146 ; estimate of profit of, 
146 (note) ; better understood by the 
an:ients than the moderns, 147 (note); 
with feeble stocks, unprofitable, 177 ; 
no " royal road" to, 'ill ; demands care 
and experience, 211 ; in Spain, exten- 
sive, 222 (note 2); on a large scale, 
unprofitable to beginners, 2&2. 

Bee-moth, permanent bottom boards, a 
security against, 97 ; easily dislodged 
from mov. comb hive, 141 ; has more 
sins to bear than she commits, 216, 
246; habits, &c, of, described, 228- 
252 ; mentioned by ancient authors, 
228 ; pest of modern apiaries, 228, 25 « ; 
when a moth-proof hive will be ob- 
tained, 228 ; Dr. Harris's account of, 
228 ; to distinguish female of, from 
male, 229 ; cut of female and "male, 
230 ; nocturnal 230 ; interesting exper- 
iment with female, 230 (note 2) ; agility 
of, 230 (and note 3) ; eggs of, laid in 
the cracks of the hive, &c., 231, 235 ; 
cut of gallery of, 232 ; cocoons of, in 
empty combs, 233 (and PL XIX., Fig. 
56) ; female will deposit eggs on pres- 
sure, 234 (note 2) ; condition of a hive 
destroyed by, 235 (and PL XX., Fig. 
57) ; did not appear simultaneously in 
this country with the bee, 236 ; multi- 
plied by the use of patent hives, 237, 
241 ; movable frames a remedy for 
the evils of, 239, 241 ; first appearance 
noted, 240 ; rapid spread of, in Ohio, 
241 ; commonly infest old stocks, 251 
(note) ; eggs of, deposited on un- 
covered combs in weak stocks, 242 ; 
signs of presence of, in hives, 242 ; not 
developed in low temperature, 243 ; 
sulphur fumes will kill the eggs and 
larvae of, in combs, 243 ; will certainly 
destroy queenless stocks, 244 (and 
note) ; fertility of, 244 ; instinct of, in 
discovering queenless stocks, 245 ; 
easily conquer stocks suffering from 
hunger, 246 (and note) ; mission of, 
247 (and note) ; keeping stocks strong 
the surest defence against, 247 ; in- 
security of other contrivances, 247 ; 
placing hives so as not to endanger 
the loss of their -queens, an important 
protection against, 248 ; adaptation of 
mov. comb hive to protect stocks 
from, 249 ; facilities of destroying, of 
no use to careless bee-keepers, 250 ; 
protection from, by an upper entrance, 
250 (note) ; caught by sweets and sour 
milk, 251 ; destroyed by fire, 251 (note 
2). 



Bee-moth, Larvae of (with cuts 229); 
how it secures itself from the attacks 
of the bees, 231 ; representation of its 
gallery, 232 ; food of, 233, 247 ; ap- 
pearance of their cocoons in empty 
combs, 233 (and PL XIX., Fig. 56); 
activity of, -b'6 ; transformation of, to 
the winged form, and effect of cold 
on, 234 (and note), 243; movable 
frames a remedy against, 239, 241 ; 
signs of presence of, in hives, 242 ; 
sulphur fumes fatal to, 243 ; should 
be destroyed early in the season, 248 ; 
extent of their ravages 249 (and 
note) ; how to entrap them, 249 ; 
traps for, of no use to the careless, 
250. 

Bee-palaces, objections to, 61, 242. 

Bees, honey, will work in the light, 16; 
23, 332 ; may be tamed, 24, 28, 308 ; 
intended for man's comfort, 24 ; never 
attack when gorged with honey, 25, 
132, 169 ; when swarming, peaceable, 
25, 132 ; always accept of offered 
sweets, 25, 168, 169, 170 ; sometimes 
attracted from other hives by sprink- 
ling sugar-water, 7 ; gorge themselves 
when frightened, 27, 154, 169 ; sub- 
dued by smoke or drumming on the 
hive, 27, 154 ; and chloroform or ether, 
210 ; the most timid may manage, 
28 ; can flourish only in colonies, 29 ; 
how affected by loss of queen, 31 ; in- 
telligence of, 48 ; breed in Winter, 48, 
339 ; number of, in a colony, 54 ; honey- 
bag of, 56 (PL XVII., Fig. 54) ; pol- 
len-basket, 56 ; proboscis of, 56 (PL 
XVI., Fig. 51, PL XIII., Fig. 63); 
sting, 56 (PL XVII., Fig. 53); loss of 
sting fatal, 57 ; age of, 58 ; industry of, 
instructive, 59 ; number of, in a colo- 
ny, why limited, 61 ; advantages of 
their "being able to Winter in a colony 
state, 62; despair of, when without 
queen or brood-comb, 67, 245 ; work 
night and day, 73 ; sagacity of, in the 
structure of their cells, 74 ; supersti- 
tions connected with, 80 ; not injur* 
ous to fruit, 85 ; need little air in Win 
ter, if comfortable, 89 ; when disturb- 
ed or confined, require much air, 
90 ; become diseased in impure air, 
90 ; anno} 7 ed by thin hives in hot 
weather, 90 ; superior to man in ven- 
tilation, 91 ; why they do not cluster 
on sealed honey in hot weather, 91 ; 
averse to jarring, 96 ; not torpid in 
Winter, 110, 335 ; chilled by cold, 
110 ; must live in communities, 110 ; 
conduct of, when queen is lost in 
swarming, 113 ; sometimes abandon 
hives to avoid starvation, 116 ; why 
they do not select new homes before 
abandoning the old, 116 ; intercom- 
municate quickly on the wing, 117 ; 
send scouts to seek new abodes, 117 



394 



INDEX. 



sight of, for distant objects, acute, 
117 ; commotion of, during absence of 
queen for impregnation, 125, 217 ; na- 
tive of hot climate, 128 (note); detest 
smell of fresh paint, 129 •; often per- 
spire while swarming, and reluctant 
to enter heated hives, 130 ; pleased to 
find comb in hive, 131 ; modes of se- 
curing swarms in difficult places, lo5 ; 
acute of -hearing, 138 ; refusing 
to swarm, should have plenty of 
storage-room, 139 ; may be advanta- 
geously kept in cities, 144 ; often re- 
fuse to swarm, 145 ; seldom colonize 
unless blossoms abound in honey, 147 ; 
ability of, to rear queens from worker - 
brood, when discovered, 148 ; with- 
out mature queens, build combs 
with large cells, 149,150 (and note); 
diminish rapidly in number after 
swarming, 151 (and note); will not 
form independent colonies in inter- 
communicating hives, 152 ; work bet- 
ter in new swarms than in old colo- 
lonies, 153 ; laden with stores, welcom- 
ed by strange swarms, 155 ; without 
stores, expelled, 155 ; frightened by 
rappings on the hive, -155 ; disposition 
of, when moved, to return to old lo- 
cation, 156 ; effect on, of temporary 
loss of home, 157 ; how to make ad- 
here to old home, wherever put, 157 ; 
losing their queens, will accept of 
others, 159 (note) ; more irascible at 
night, 167 ; confounded by sudden in- 
troduction of light into their hives, 
168, 169 ; difficult to subdue when 
once thoroughly excited, 170 ; use all 
available space for honey, 172 (note 
2); tenacious adherence of, to their 
combs, 172 ; losing their queen when 
swarming, return to parent, stock, 
174 ; their mode of communication, 
174 (note 1); storing surplus honey 
to be unmolested, 180 (and note 1); 
amusing conduct of, on finding a 
strange hive where their own should 
be, 181 (note 1) ; emboldened to self- 
defence by presence of queen, 182; 
judicious renewal of, for swarms, not 
injurious to mother-stocks, 183 ; their 
instinct to become over-rich, 183 (note 
2J; their passion for forage, 186 (note 
1); when destitute of queen, will rear 
young ones, if they have brood-comb, 
188 ; need water when confined, 189 
(note); how encouraged to work in 
an upper hive, 189 ; do not always 
cluster on brood comb in nuclei, 192 
(note) ; sometimes start queen-cells 
that fail, 193 ; young do inside, and 
old, outside work, 194 ; young are 
wax-workers, 196; their occasional 
refusal to make royal cells explained, 
197 (note) ; a worthy trait of, 197 ; 
their treatment of strange queens, 



200.; to cause, to receive strange 
queens kindly, 201 ; of different colo- 
nies may be united, 203 ; distinguish 
their hive companions by smell and 
actions, 203 ; conduct of, when fright- 
ened, 203 ; when disturbed and scent- 
ed, will readily mingle, 203 (and note); 
in too large hives, become dispirited, 
208 ; in large apiaries, if the hives are 
alike, liable to mistake them, 214 ; 
effeet on, of loss of queen, 217 ; ene- 
mies of, 228-255 ; vigilance of, against 
the moth, 231 ; not a native of the 
New World, 235 ; a harbinger of civ- 
ilization, 236 (note); can learn to de- 
fend themselves against new enemies, 
240 ; destroyed by mice and by birds, 
252 ; by toads and bears, 254 ; dis- 
eases of, 255-260 ; propensities of, to 
rob, and appearance of thieving bees, 

261 ; habitual robbers become black, 

262 (and note) ; sometimes rob the 
humble bee, 262 ; grand battles of, 

263 ; of conquered colonies, incorpor- 
ate themselves with the victors, 263 ; 
frantic fury of robbers, when deprived 
of their spoil, 265 ; how to cool them 
into temporary honesty, 265 ; feeding 
of, 267-278 ; are fond of salt, 272 ; in- 
fatuation of, for confectionery, 277 ; 
compared to intemperate men, 278 ; 
the avaricious, folly of, 278 ; fond of 
shade, 280 ; procuring for an apiary, 
280 ; transferring from common to 
mov. comb hives, 282 ; get supplies 
from honey-dews, 287 ; flight of, its 
extent, 305 ; pacific temper of, 308 ; 
incident illustrating good nature of, 
while swarming, 308 ; readily taught 
by ill treatment to be vindictive, 310 ; 
human breath offensive to, 311 ; at a 
distance from their hives, never sting 
unless hurt, 312 ; kindness of, at home, 
a lesson for man, 312 ; their treat- 
ment of the sick, 312 ; their sense of 
smell, 313 ; dead, medicinal qualities 
of, 315 (note) ; will more surely sting 
hairy than bare parts, 317 ; maintain 
a high temperature in Winter, 335 ; 
eat less in Winter when kept quiet, 
335, 355 ; wintering of, 335-361 ; unit- 
ing small colonies of, for wintering, 
336 ; do not store honey so as always 
to be accessible in Winter, 336 ; can- 
not be relied on to make Winter pas- 
sages in combs, 336 ; should be pro- 
tected from Winter winds, 337, 348 ; 
if out of doors in Winter should be 
allowed to fly, 337 ; sometimes perish 
in snow, 338 (note 1) ; experiments 
on wintering, by author, 339 ; need 
water in cold weather, 342-346 ; need 
water to eat candied honey, 342-344 ; 
injured by being disturbed in Winter, 
347,355 ; seldom discharge their faeces 
in the hive, 347 ; on wintering in dry 



INDEX. 



395 



cellars, 348 ; in special depositories, 
349-360 ; eat less and lower die in 
clamps than in other special Winter 
depositories, 355, 358. 

Bee-keepers, common hives do not teach 
the laws of bee-breeding, 164 ; ii' 
timid, should use bee-dress, 20 ( .) : 
ignorance of, the greatest obstacle to 
speedy introduction of mow comb 
hive, 209 ; often captivated by shal- 
low devices, 211 ; scepticism of many, 
in regard to the wonders of the bee- 
hive, 211 ; often mistake the cause of 
the loss of their queens, 216 ; careless, 
will be unsuccessful, 226, 250 ; should 
not encourage the destruction of birds, 
253 ; specimen of, opposed to improve- 
ments, 357. 

Bee-quack's secret, 238 (note) . 

Bees, queen of, see Queen Bees. 

Beginners, should be cautious in experi- 
menting, 179, 307. 

Berg, Rev. Dr., first informed author of 
Dzierzon's discoveries, 16. 

Berlepsch, Baron of, his stocks injured 
by scientific experiments, 179 (note); 
uses frames similar to the author's, 3^1 
(note 2); experiments on impregna- 
tion of queens, 126 (note) ; Italian 
bee, 323 ; his experiments on the effect 
of cold on queens, 327 : shows that 
bees need water in winter, 342. 

Bevan, on eggs, and larvae of bees 44- 
47 ; on " driving," or forced swarming 
(note) , 154 ; an experiment of, in re- 
moving a queen, 218 (note); feeds salt 
to bees, 272 ; his description of honey- 
dew, 286. 

Birds, bee devouring, 252 ; why they 
should not be destroyed, 253 (and 
note) . 

Blocks, entrance regulating (Plate HI., 
Figs. 11, 12); useful to prevent swarm- 
ing, 174 (and note); security against 
mice 175, 252 ; against robber-bees, 
264. 

Bod well, J. C, experiments of, in winter- 
ing bees 345. 

Boerhave's account of Swammerdam's 
labors, 65 (note). 

Bohemia, its production of honey, 304. 

Boiling honey improves it, 287. 

Borage, valuable for bees, 298. 

Bottom-boards should be permanently 
fixed to hive, 97 ; should slant towards 
entrance, 97 : cleaning of, 98 ; daugers 
of movable, from the moth, 231 ; 
Spring cleaning of, 243 ; Winter clean- 
ing of, 347. 

Boxes for spare honey, 289, 290. 

Braum, Mr. A., his experiment to ascer- 
tain the increase of honey in a hive, 
303. 

Breath, human, offensive to bees, 170, 
311. 

Breeding " iD-and-in," injurious, 54; 



early, oncouraged by spring-feeding, 

268. 

Brood, temperature necessary for its 
development, 46, 48 ; attended to by 
young bees, 197 ; production of, check- 
ed by over-feeding, 268 ; found in 
hives in Winter, 48, 339. 

Brood-comb, see Comb. 

Brown, lion. Simon, his description of a 
combat between two queens, 205. 

Buckwheat, valuable for late bee-pas- 
ture, 296 ; its yield, and quality of 
honey variable, 296 (and notes 1 and 
2); its cultivation recomnfftided, 296 
(and note 3) ; blossoming of, may 
cause swarming. 366. 

Buera, on the need of water for bees, 344. 

Burnens, great merits of, as an observer, 
S3 ; laborious experiment of, 33 (note) ; 
Huber's tribute to, 194 (note). 

Busch, his description of the Italian bee, 
324. 

Butler's description of the drone, 224 ; 
his drone-pot, 225 ; his anecdote of a 
honey-hunting swain, 254 ; his direc 
tions for procuring the favor of bees, 
311, 317. 

C. 

Cage, see Queen Cage. 

Calendar, bee-keeper's, 362-370. 

Candied honey, bees need water to dis- 
solve, 342-344. 

Candy, sugar, recommended for bee- 
feed, 272 ; recipe for making, 272 
(note). 

Cary, Wm. W., his mode of uniting colo- 
nies, 204 ; of fastening comb in frames, 
283 (note) ; his mode of making winter 
passages in combs, 337 (note) ; on win- 
tering bees, 346 (note 2). 

Casts, see After-Swarms. 

Catalogue of bee-plants, 298. 

Cellars, dry, good for wintering bees, 
345, 348. 

Cells, of bees, their contents, 29 ; covers 
of, 44 ; for breeding, become too small, 
60; woodcuts of, Plates XDX, XIV., 
and XV. ; royal 62, 213 ; thinness of 
their sides, 71 (note) ; sizes of, 74, PL 
XV. , Fig. 48 ; demonstrate the exist- 
ence of God, 75. 

Cherry-tree yields honey, 292. 

Chickens, curious use of, 248. 

Children of the rich, compared to pam- 
pered bees, 268 ; may learn from bees 
how to treat their mothers, 312, 

Chloride of lime, useful as a disinfectant 
of foul hives, 257. 

Chloroform, subdues bees by stupefac- 
tion, 210. 

Clamps, for wintering bees, 348-360. 

Clover, white, most important source of 
honey, 294 ; Mr. Holbrook, on the 
value of, for stock, 294 ; Swedisb, 294. 



396 



INDEX 



Clustering of swarms, 113, 116. 

Cocoon, complete one, spun by drone 
and worker -larvae, 46 ; imperfect one, 
by queen-larvae, 46 ; of larvse, never 
removed from cells, 60 ; of the moth, 
231, (PL XIX.) 

Cold, moderate, makes bees almost dor- 
mant, 89 ; chills bees, HO ; water, use- 
ful in subduing robbers, 265. 

Colonies, of bees (see also Stocks of 
bees ; rapid increase of, in Australia, 
51 (note) ; age of, 59 ; new, composed 
of young and old bees, 119 ; impossible 
to multiply rapidly, by natural swarm- 
ing, 147 ; folly of attempting to mul- 
tiply, by dividing-hives, 149 ; to re- 
move, from oltl locations, 156, 157 ; 
artificial, not to be formed till drones 
appear, 158 ; artificial, time necessary 
to form, 173 ; cautions against too 
rapid increase of, 175 (note), 176-178 ; 
weak, easily strengthened by use of 
mov. comb hive, 178 ; possible extent 
of multiplication of, 178 ; most profit- 
able rate of increase, 179 ; to form one 
new colony from two old ones, 180 ; 
mother, easily supplied with young 
fertile queens, in mov. comb hive, 
182 ; sometimes over-stored with hon- 
ey, 183 (notes 1 and 2) ; table illustrat- 
ing rapid increase of, 185 ; new, must 
remain where first put, 185 ; many 
bees may be removed from, when the 
queens are fertile, 186 ; new, formed 
by reversing position of hives, 187 ; 
piling mode of forming, 188 ; should, 
when moved, be supplied with water, 
189 (note) ; to supply queens for 
rapid increase of, 190-193 ; how they 
may be safely mingled, 203. 336 ; if 
small, should be confined by movable 
partition, to suitable limits, 208 ; en- 
dangered by loss of queen. 217, 246 ; 
having young queens should be watch- 
ed, 218, 222 ; signs that, have no 
queen, 219 ; Spring care of, 221 ; 
queenless in October, to be united with 
other colonies, 223 ; old, more liable 
than young, to the ravages of worms, 
233, 251 (note) ; queenless, will be de- 
stroyed by the moth, 244 (and note) ; 
when hopelessly queenless, their de- 
struction certain, 246 ; how to be 
treated when infected with dysentery, 
256 ; how, when attacked with foul 
brood, 257-260 ; suspected, used by 
Dzierzon to rear surplus queens for 
artificial stocks, 260 ; strong, can, in 
a season, supply materials for four 
swarms, 260 ; feeding of, 267-278 ; 
should be strong when honey harvest 
closes, 269 ; weak, in the Fall, should 
be added to other stocks, 27 0, 336 ; 
location of, how to change, 280 ; re- 
moval of, to new apiaries, 281 ; weak, 
ill-success of, has led to the belief 



that we are over-stacked, 299; ov'if 
strong, profitable, 299, 303 (and notr,>; 
itinerating, 305 (note 2); when brok ~u 
up for their honey, the queens should 
be removed beforehand, 306 (note); of 
common bees, readily converted into 
Italian, 322. 

Color, aids in recognizing their hive, 214 
216. 

Columella, notice of his Treatise en 
Bee_Keeping, 147 (note) ; his remedy 
against the over-storing ot hives, 183 
(note 2); advice of, concerning Spring 
examination of stocks, 221 (note 1) ; 
recommended that weak stocks be 
strengthened from strong ones, 221 
(note 2); his suggestion as to the 
proper time to remove surplus honey, 
224 (note) ; his mode of feeding bees, 
271 (note 1) ; his directions how to 
gain the favor of bees, 311. 

Colvin, his method of securing straight 
comb, 373 ; manner of making the 
mov. comb hive 383. 

Comb, 69-76 ; too old, can be easily re- 
moved in mov. comb hives, 60, 209 , 
materials of, 69 ; wood-cuts of, repre- 
senting various kinds of cells, Plates 
XIII. , XIV., and XV.; empty, great 
value of, to bee-keeper, 71 ; should 
not be melted into wax, 71 ; rapidly 
refilled by bees, 71 ; easily supplied to 
bees in mov. comb hive, 71 ; how at- 
tached to frames, 72, 283 (and note) ; 
drone-comb, not to be put in breed-* 
ing apartments, 72, ISO ; artificial, sug- 
gestion concerning, 72 ; author's ex- 
periments to induce bees to make it 
from old wax, 72 ; building of, carried 
on most actively by night, 72 ; comb- 
building and honey-gathering simul- 
taneous, 73 ; danger to, in hot weather, 
91 ; caution respecting, in artificial 
swarming from common hives, 155 
(and note); generally built somewhat 
waving, 171 ; how to examine ; when in 
mov. comb hive, 172 ; brood, used for 

. nuclei, 189 ; worker, used to rear 
queens, 191 ; building of, by young 
bees, 196 ; worker, should never be 
destroyed, 207 (and note 2); prefer- 
able to artificial comb-guides, 207, 
208 ; control of, essential to a system 
of management, adapted to the wants 
of all bee-keepers, 208 ; safely taken 
from hive when bees arc filled with 
honey or sugar-water, 210; old, most 
liable to be infested with worms, 233, 
251 (note); empty, should sometimes 
bo removed from feeble stocks, 243; 
new, unsafe to move in warm weather, 
281 ; containing bee-bread , has in- 
ferior honey, 288; very old brood, not 
worth rendering into wax, 288; to 
make Winter bee-passages in, 337 (and 
note 1). 



INDEX. 



397 



Composition for corners of hives, to 
secure them from moths, 78. 

Confectioners, how they may prevent 
annoyance from bees, 277. 

Control of comb, essential to a true sys- 
tem of bee-culture, 20S. 

Corsica^ ancient, yield of honey of, ^04. 



D. 

Dampness, injurious to boos, 90, 95 ; 
312,34o,34S ; produces dysentery, 25 5. 

Dandelion, furnishes honey and pollen, 
202. 

Dangers of too rapidly multiplying stocks, 
176—178 ; of using hives of uniform 
size, shape, and color, 214. 

Daylight, needed for operations on bees, 
167. 

Denmark, its honey-produce, 304. 

Desertion of hives by swarms, indications 
and prevention of, 115. 

Diseases of bees, 255-260. 

Dishonesty, as poor policy in bees as in 
men, 262! 

Dissection of. queen bees 34, 213 (not 1 ). 

Disturbing bees in cold weather, inju- 
rious, 256, 335, 347, 355. 

Dividing hives, worthless for artificial 
swarming, 149, 150. 

Dfinliotf, Dr., on artificial impregnation 
of a drone-egg, 41 ; on thickness of 
sides of cells, 71 (note); his mode of 
forced swarming, 163 ; his experiment 
indicating a division of labor among 
bees according to age, 194 ; on food of 
bee -moth larvae, 233 (note); on eggs 
of bee- moth, 234 (note 2). 

Double-stocks, produce a large yield of 
honey, 135. 

Doubling stocks yearly, 185. 

Draining combs of honey, 288. 

Drawings, explanation of, for making 
mov. comb hive, 371. 

Drone-comb, wood-cat of, PL XV., Fig. 
48 ; the cause of excess of, 51 ; excess 
of, should be removed from breeding 
apartments, 51, 225 ; if new, advanta 
geous in boxes for surplus honey, 130. 

Drone-eggs, not impregnated, 37 ; attempt 
of bees to rear a queen from, 39 ; arti- 
ficial impregnation of, 41 ; laid by 
superannuated queens, 49. 

Drone-laying queens, 38,40,213 (note); 
use to be made of, 214 (note), 327. 

Drones, or male-bees, produced by re- 
tarded impregnation of queens, 36 ; 
always by unfecundated eggs, 37 ; 
often by unfecundated queens, 37, 127 
(note) ; their development from egg 
to insect, 46 ; description and wood- 
cuts of, 49; PI. XII., Figs. 33, 34 
(natural and magnified size) ; office 
of, to impregnate young queens, 49 ; 
time of their appearance, 50 ; often 



very numerous, 50 ; how to prevent 
excessive multiplication of, 51 ; why 
destroyed by workers, 52, 224; wis- 
dom displayed in providing so many, 
53 ; length of life, 58 ; perish in im- 
pregnation of queen, 125, 126 (note); 
never molest queens in hive, 127 
(note); on leaving the hive, are filled 
with honey, but on returning are 
empty, 224 ; Butler's description of, 
224 ; destroyed by ancient bee-keepers, 
51, 225 ; easily destroyed by use ot 
mov. comb hive, 225 ; their anxiety 
when excluded from the hive, 225 ; 
their odor, 226 (note 1); how to pre- 
vent common, from impregnating 
Italian queens, 326 ; refrigerated 
queens produce only, 327. 

Drought, failure occasioned by, 178 
(note). 

Drumming on hive subdues bees, 210 
(note). 

Dunbar, his description of how queen 
lays, 43. 

Dysentery from bad ventilation, 90 ; 
from dampness and sour honey, 256 ; 
how prevented, 256 ; makes bees cross, 
310 ; caused by want of water in 
Winter, 343. 

Dzierzon, facts connected with the inven- 
tion of his hive, 19 ; rise of his system, 
19 ; his apiary nearly destroyed by 
" foul brood," 19 ; committee of apia- 
rian convention report favorably on 
his system, 20 ; it creates a revolution 
in German bee-keeping, 20 ; profits 
of his apiary, 21 ; discovered that un- 
fecundated eggs produce males, 37 ; 
thinks some brood may bo raised 
without pollen, 81 ; discovered rye 
meal to be a good substitute for pol- 
len, 84 ; supposes sound of queen's 
wings excites droues, 127 (note) ; his 
mode of forcing swarming, 186 ; his 
estimate of the value of a queen, 192 
(note); his treatment of foul brood. 
257 ; recommends the cultivation of 
buckwheat, 296 ; on the difficulty of 
estimating profits of bee-culture, 306 
(note); his experiments with the Ital- 
ian bee, 320 ; thinks bees not injured 
by the opening of their hives, 321 
(note) ; his mode of wintering bees, 
348. 

E. 

Eggs of bees, how fecundated, 35 ; fecun- 
dated produce fern lies, unfecundated, 
males, 37; sex of, determined by queen, 
38 ; what is necessary to their imprtg- 
nation, 41 ; no difference in size be- 
tween drone and worker eggs, 42 ; 
process of laying, 43 ; description of, 
44 ; PI. XIII. , Fig. 3 ) ; degree of heat 
necessary to hatch them, 46; power 



398 



INDEX. 



of queens over their development, 47 ; 
laid ten months in the year, 48, 339 ; 
supernumerary, how disposed of, 48 ; 
ventilation necessary for hatching, 89 ; 
of workers transferred to royal cells, 
219 ; of bee-moth, 234 (note 2). 

Ehrenfels, profits of his large apiary, 
300. 

Enemies of bees, 228-255 ; moth, 228- 
252 ; mice 252 ; birds, 252, toads, 254 ; 
hears, 254 ; ants, 255 ; wasps, spiders, 
&c, 255; all agreed in fondness for 
honey, 255. 

Energy of bees, instructive, 197. 

Engravings, see wood-cuts. 

Entrance of hives, should not ordina- 
rily be above the level of the bottom- 
board, 98 ; should be readily varied 
without perplexing the bees, 98 ; a 
small upper one, uses of, 250, 388 (and 
note) ; should be nearly closed when 
colony is threatened by robbers, 264 
how to regulate in Winter, 338. 

Epitaph on bees killed by sulphur, 239. 

Ether used for stupefying bees, 210. 

Evans, Dr., quotations from poem of, 
on bees, 50, 60, 69, 76, 77, 78, 79, 109 
267, 292. 

Experiments, an interesting one, 67 ; of 
Huber, showing the use of pollen, 80 
author's to the same effect, 81 ; nume- 
rous, of author, 179 ; cautions con 
cerning, to beginners, 179 ; bee-keep 
ers invited to make, 180 ; of Huber ; 
showing two kinds of workers, 193 
(note); difficulty of demonstration by 
193 (note) ; Dr. Ddnhoffs, showing 
that young bees are nurses and old 
bees honey-gatherers, 194 ; of author 
in wintering bees, 339 ; of E. T. Stur 
tevant, 340 ; of Berlepsch and Eber 
hardt, 342 ; of J. C. Bodwell, 345 ; of 
Mr. Scholtz, 348 ; further, needed, in 
wintering bees, 360. 

Examination of combs and bees in hive, 
importance of, in Spring, 221. 

Experience renders bee-keeping profit- 
able, 282. 

F. 

Facts, however wonderful, should be 

received, 42. 
Faeces, appearance of, in young and old 

bees, different, 197 ; healthy bees do 

not discharge, in hive, 347 ; how to 

make bees in mov. comb hives, safely 

aisoriarg' 1 , 361 (and note). 
Faint-neartedness, rebuked, 198. 
Famine causes bees to abandon hives, 

116. 
Fear, effect of, in taming bees, 27 ; in 

uniting swarms, 204. 
Feeble stocks unprofitable, 141, 177, 269, 

336. 
Feeder, convenience of, in mov. comb 



hive, 270 ; construction of, 271 ; PI. 

XL., Fig. 26. 
Feeding bees, 267-278 ; few things more 
important in practical bee-keeping, 
267 ; Spring feeding specially neces- 
sary, 267 (and note); caution in, re- 
quired, 268 ; over-feeding, like pam- 
pering children, 268 ; to be submit- 
ted to only in extremities, 268 ; how 
done, in common hives, 209; diffi- 
cult to build up small colonies by, 

269 ; equitable division of resources, 
in, 270; when it should be done for 
Winter, 270 ; what should be used in, 

270 ; unprofitable in late Fall stocks, 
270 (note) ; mode of, by means of a 
feeder, 27 i ; water should be supplied, 
271, 342 ; importance of salt, in, 272 ; 
sugar-candy a good and cheap article 
for, 272 (and note), and 273 (note); 
Kleine's mode of using candy, 273, 
274 ; value of grape-sugar for, 273 ; 
Sholz' sugar-honey for, 274 ; granulat- 
ed sugar for, 274 (and note); quantity 
of honey needed for, to Winter bees, 

274 ; weight of hives, unsafe standard 
to determine amount of honey for, 

275 (note); caution to be observed in, 
277 ; should not be too early in the 
Fall, 298 ; cheap honey, to sell again, 
unprofitable in, 275. 

Fertility of queens, 32 ; diminishes with 
age, 141, 223 ; diminished by hunger 
and cold, 223 (note 1). 

Fishback, Judge, his precautions to pre- 
vent loss of young queens, 216 ; his ex- 
perience with the bee-moth, 24u(note). 

Flight of bees, its extent, 305; its rapidity, 
305 (note 2). 

Flowers for bees, Nutt's catalogue of, 
298 ; garden, furnish little bee-pasture, 
297. 

Foul-brood, its malignity, 19, 256 ; dry 
and moist, 256 ; remedy, 257, 258 ; a 
disease exclusively of the larvae, 259 ; 
supposed cause, 256 (note), 259 ; liable 
to appear the second time, 259. 

Forcing-box, its size and use, 154, 165. 

Frames, movable, invented by author, 
15 ; how they must be made to be 
lifted out of hive, 150, 171, 209 (note) ; 
process of removing from the hive, 
171, 370 (PI. XXIV.); with comb used 
for patterns, 208 ; effect on bee-culture, 
211 (note) ; a protection against the 
ravages of the moth, 239, 241 ; render 
the cleaning of hive easy, 243 ; used 
by Berlepsch, 321 (note 2) ; approved 
of by Siebold, 321 (note 2), not well 
adapted to tall hives, 330. 

Fricsland, East, its productiveness in 
honey, 304. 

Fruit, honey bees beneficial to, 85;-87 
wasps and hornets injurious to. 86. 

Fruit-trees, blossoms of, yield hone}, 
292. 



INDEX. 



399 



Fumigation of hives with puff-ball, ob- 
jectionable, 210. 



G 



Gardeners might manage their employ- 
ers' bees, in mow comb hive, 226. 

Garden plants insufficient to furnish bee- 
pasture, 297. 

Glass, vessels of, for spare honey, should 
have guide-combs, 290 ; objections to, 
290 (note). 

Gloves, india-rubber, to protect the 
hands, 317 (PL XL, Fig. 27); woollen, 
objectionable, 317. 

Goldsmith, on spontaneous and fashion- 
able joys, 334. 

" Good old way*' of corn-raising, 237. 

Golden-rod. some varieties of, furnish 
food for bets, 298. 

Governments, of Europe, interest of some 
in disseminating knowledge of bee cul- 
ture, 320 (note). 

Grape-sugar, as food for bees, 273. 

Guide for combs, artificial, secure regu- 
larity in building comb, 130, 207" ; can- 
not be invariably relied on, 208 ; Ger- 
man invention of, (PL VI. , Fig. 72) . 

Gundelach, on the necessity of pollen for 
rearing brood, 81. 

H. 

Hairv objects, why offensive to bees, 

317. 
Harris, Dr., his account of the bee-moth, 

Hart.- horn, spirits of, remedy for bee- 
stings, 316. 

Health, bad ventilation of houses impairs, 
92. 

Hearing, in bees, acute, 138. 

Heat, degree required to hatch the 
of bees and develop the pupa 
great, attendant on comb-building, 71. 

Hens, too much crowded, mistake their 
nests, 215 ; not good tenders of moth- 
traps, 248. 

Heyne*; on over-stocking, 301. 

Hiver, basket for, 133. 

Hives (see Mo v. Comb Hive), Huber's, 
author's experiments -with. 14; made 
with slats, 15, 210 (note) ; should be 
made of sound lumber, 78 ; mixture 
for sealing corners of, 78 ; thin, an- 
noying to bees in hot weather, 90 ; 
sixty-one requisites for complete, 95- 
108 ; size of, should admit of variation, 
96 ; " improved," often bad, 107; quali- 
ties of best, 107 : paint on, should be 
very dry before hiving, 129 ; heated in 
the sun, should not be used for new 
swarms, 129 ; should incline forward, 
but stand level from side to side, 130 ; 
if clean, need no washing or rubbing 
with herbs, 131 ; five stocks in one, 



137 ; should be placed where it is to 
staud, as Soon as swarm is secured, 
138; if not ready to swarm, how to 
proceed, 139 ; difficult to rid of 
moth, 141 ; common, difficult to remove 
unfertile queen from, 141 ; Huber's, 
148 ; " dividing," and objections to, 
149; self-colonizing, ineffectual, 151: 
thorough inspection of, necessary for 
success, 152 ; non-swarming, likely to 
exterminate the bee, if generally used, 
153 ; decoy when to be used, 155 ; for 
surplus honey, should be undisturbed, 
180, (and note) ; like Dzierzou's, even 
with movable frames, give inadequate 
control of bees, 187 (note) : should be 
opened before or after sun-light, when 
forage is scarce, 199 ; royal combat 
witnessed in author's observing, 205 ; 
with poor arrangements, educate bees 
to regard their keeper as an enemy, 
210 (note) ; wonders of, unknown by 
many bee-keepers, 211 ; in crowded 
apiary, 214-216 ; condition of, should be 
ascertained, 221 ; patent, evil results 
of, 237, 241 ; should be cleaned in early 
Spring, 243; common, furnish no re- 
liable remedy for loss of queen, 245 ; 
infected with foul-brood, to disinfect, 
257 ; common, how prepared for re- 
moval when occupied by stocks, 2S1 ; 
to transfer bees from common to mov. 
comb, 2"2 ; size, shape, and materials 
for, 329-332 ; size of author's can be 
varied at pleasure, 329 ; tall, advan- 
tages and disadvantages of, 329 ; meet 
advantageous form of, 330 ; Dzierzou's, 
disadvantages of, 331 ; double and 
triple, 331 (note) : proper materials 
for , 331 ; suggestions as to making mov. 
comb. 332. 

Hives, mov. comb, see movable Comb 
Hives. 

Hives, patent, see Patent Hives. 

Hiving bees, directions for, 129 ; expert- 
ness in, makes pleasant, 123 ; should 
be conducted in shade, 130 ; should 
be attended to soon after swarm set- 
tles, 132 ; process of, 133 ; basket for, 
133; sheet for, how arranged, 133 ; 
how to expedite, 133 ; process of, must 
be repeated when queen not secured, 
134 ; when settled out of leach, how 
to secure the swarm, 134 ; when swarm 
alights in difficult place, or two swarms 
cluster together, 135 : how to secure 
the queen, 136 ; old-fashioned way 
of, bad, 136 ; so as to prevent swarms 
uniting, 138 ; when done, remove 
swarms to proper stands, 138 ; danger 
of delaying, 138 ■ what to do if no hive 
is ready, 139. 

Holbrook, Hon. F., on cultivation ol 

white clover, 294. 
Home, should be made attractive-, 22 rt . 
Honey , 285-292 ; its elements, 70 ; quan 



400 



INDEX 



tity consumed in secreting wax, 71, 
176 ; gathered by day, 72 ; sometimes 
gathered by moonlight, 73 (note) ; 
honey-gathering and comb building 
simultaneous, 73 ; surplus, incompati- 
ble with rapid increase of colonies, 176 ; 
how to secure the largest yield of, 18U ; 
more abundant fifty years ago than 
now, 2j6 ; reasons assigned for the 
deficiency, 237 ; foreign, supposed 
cause of foul brood, 256, 258; from 
foul-brood colonies, infectious, 256 
(note 2) ; infected, how purified, 257 ; 
West India, used for bee-feed, 256 
(note), 270; and sugar (Sholz' com- 
position), 274; quantity of, necessary 
for wintering stocks, 274 ; poor, not 
convertible into good, 275 ; not a secre- 
tion of the bee, 275 (and note 2) ; re- 
tains the flavor of the blossoms from 
whence it is taken, 275 ; evaporation 
produces the principal changes in, 276 
(and note 1) ; " making over" honey 
not profitable, 276 ; recipe for artificial, 
276 (note) ; a vegetable product, 285 ; 
qualities of, vary, 287 ; hurtful quali- 
ties cured by boiling, 287 (and note) ; 
should not be exposed to low tem- 
perature, 287 ; old, more wholesome 
than new, 287 ; virtues ascribed to it 
by old writers, 237 (note) ; to drain 
from the comb, 288, 366; to make 
liquid when candied, 288 ; caution as to 
West India, 288 (note) ; of Hymettus, 

293 (note) ; yield of, affected by soil, 

294 (note) ; from the raspberry, deli- 
cious, 296 ; yield of, by plants uncer- 
tain, 296 (note 2); large amount gath- 
ered. in a day, 303 ; on the hands, pro- 
tects them against bee-stings, 317 ; 
bees eat less in Winter, when kept 
quiet, 335, 348, 358 ; how to get in 
centre of hive, for Winter, 336 ; can- 
died, bees need water to dissolve, 342- 
344. 

Honey-bag, worker's, 56 (PL XVII. , Fig. 
54). 

Honey-bees, see Bees. 

Honey-board, spare, holes in, left open 
in Winter, 338 ; sometimes strongly 
glued by bees, 172 (note) ; care in 
placing necessary, 173. 

Honey-dews, 285 ; of California, 285 
(note) ; when most abundant and 
where found, 286. 

Honey-hornets, Mexican, 58 (note) 87. 

Honey-resources, how to increase, 293. 

Honey-suckle, juice of, a remedy for bee- 
stings, 315. 

Honey, surplus, much, incompatible with 
rapid multiplication of stocks, 176, 178 ; 
best yield of, from undisturbed stocks, 
180 ; receptacles for, when to admit 
bees to, 288, 364 ; how secured, 289 ; 
quantity from one stock. 289 (note 2) ; 
large boxes race profitable than small, 



for, 289 (and note 2), 290 (note 1) , 
glass vessels and small boxes, for, 290, 
air-tight boxes, to preserve, 290 (note 
2) ; receptacles of, how and when to 
remove them, 291,365 ; boxes for, bees 
reluctant to fill, late in the season, 066. 

Honey-water, objectionable for subduing 
bees, 1€9 (note). 

Hornets, fecundation of, 35 ; Mexican, 
honey, 58 (note), 87 ; injure fruit, 86 ; 
should be destroyed in Spring, 87 ; tor* 
pid in Winter, 109. 

Horses sweaty, very' offensive to bees, 
279, 313. 

Horticulturists, honey-bees their friends, 
85,87. 

Houses, ventilation of, neglected, 91. 

Huber, Francis, tribute to, 32-34; dis- 
covered how queens are impregnated, 
34 ; that unfecunded queens produce 
only drones, 36; experiments of, to 
test the secretion of wax, 69 ; to show 
the use of pollen, 80 ; his discovery of 
ventilation by bees, 88 ; his supposition 
as to development in queen of malo 
eggs, 128 (note) ; his plan for artificial 
swarming and its objections, 148; effect 
of his leaf hive in pacifying bees, 168 ; 
his mistake as to the cause, 169 ; an in- 
convenience of his hive, 171 (note) ; his 
description of workers, 192 (note 2) ; 
his curious experiments showing a dis- 
tinction among them, 193 (note) ; his 
tribute to Burnens,194 (note) ; his ac- 
count of the treatment by bees of 
strange queens, 200 ; his trial of two 
queens in a hive, 207 (note) ; splendid 
discoveries of, formerly ridiculed, 211. * 

Humble-bee robbed by honey-bees, 262. 

Hunger impairs fertility of queen-bee, 
223 (note 1). 

Hunt, Rev. T. P., his mode of securing 
swarms, 132. 

Hunter, Dr., discovers pollen in the 
stomach of bees, 80. 

Hurting bees, important to avoid, 95. 

Hyginus, on feeding bees, 267 (note). 

I. 

Impregnation, of queen -bees, 34-43 ; re- 
tarded, effect of, 36 ; remarkable law 
of, in aphides, 42 ; takes place in the 

" air, 50, 320 ; act of, fatal to drone, 125, 
126 (note) ; Shrimplin's experiment 
illustrative of, 127. 

Italian honey-bees, 41 ; singular result 
of crossing with common drones, 41, 
324 (note 2) ; used to show a division 
of labor among bees, 194; account of 
318-328 ; described by Aristotle and 
Virgil, 318 ; Mr. Wagner's letter on 
318 ; their modern introduction to no- 
tice, 318 ; value of, in the study of the 
physiology of the honey-bee, 319 ; 
«ells of, the same size as those of the 



INDEX. 



401 



common bee, 320 ; Dzierzon's experi- 
ments with, 320 ; frequent disturbances 
abate nothing from the industry of, 

321 (note) ; general diffusion of, de- 
sirable, 321 ; superior to common bee, 
322, 324,325 ; peaceable disposition of 

322 ; may readily be introduced into 
hives of common bees, 322 ; furnishes 
new means of studying the habits of 
bees, 322 : the purity of, can be pre- 
served, 322 ; character of, as tested by 
Berlepsch, 324 ; number of queens 
obtained in one season, from one 
queen, 324; remarkable fact in rela- 
tion to hybrids, 324 (note); descrip- 
tion of, by Busch, 324; Kadlkoffer's 
account of, 325 ; how to iutroduce an 
Italiau queen to a stock of common 
bees, 325 ; advantages of author's non- 
swarmer in preserving the Italian bee 
pure, 326 ; how to produce abundance 
of drones of, 327 ; precaution suggest- 
ed when nou-s warmer cannot be used, 
327 ; queens of, safely moved in mow 
comb hive, 327 ; introduction of, into 
this country, important, 328 ; arrange- 
ments to that end, 328 (note). 

Itinerating colonies, 305 (note 2). 

Ignorance, the occasion of the invention 
of costly and useless hives, 209 (and 
note) . 

Increase of colonies, rapid, impractica- 
ble, by natural swarming, 147 ; or by 
dividing hives, 149 ; rapid, cautions 
against, 175-178 ; rapid, incompatible 
with large yield of surplus honey, 176 ; 
a tenfold, possible, in mow comb hive, 

178 ; sure, not rapid, to be aimed, at, 

179 ; forming one new from two old 
colonies best, and how effected, 180; 
rapid, requires liberal feeding, 184. 

Inexperienced persons should not begin 
bee-keeping on a large scale, 282. 

Indian name for honey-bee, 236. 

Industry taught by the bee, 59. 

Intemperate men compared to infatuated 
bees, 278. 

Intercommunication of bees in hives, im- 
portant, 103, 836, 337 (and note), 339 
(and note). 

Irving, Washington, his account of the 
abundance of bees at the West, 236 
(note). 

J. 

Jansha, on impregnation of queen, 36. 
Japanese, veneration for birds, 253 

(note) . 
Jarring, disliked by bees, 96, 170, 309. 
Jelly, royal, the food of immature 

queen, 63 ; a secretion of the bees, 64 ; 

analysis of, 64 , effect of, in developing 

larvae, 64, 191 ; pollen necessary for 

its production, 197. 
Johnson, M. T., the first American ob- 



server of the fact that queenless stock* 
are soon destroyed by the moth, 24* 
(note). 

K. 

Kaden, Mr., on over-stocking, 301. 

Killing bees for honey, an invention of 
the dark ages, 239 (note); more hu 
mane than to starve them, 238 ; no) 
necessary, 239. 

Kindness of bees at home, a lesson for 
man, 312. 

King-bird, eats bees, 252. 

Kir by and Spence on ants and aphides 
2S5 

Kirtland, Dr. J. P., his letter on the in- 
troduction of the bee- moth, 240 ; on 
benefits of transferring stocks into 
mov. comb hive, 284. 

Knight on honey-dews, 286. 

Kleine, Rev. Mr., on making bees rear 
queens in selected cells, 191 ; his 
method of preventing robberies among 
bees, 265 (note); on feeding bees, 273; 
on over-stocking, 301 ; on accustoming 
the human system to the poison of 
bees, 316 (note). 



L. 

Larvse of honey-bee, development of, 44 
(PI. XIII., Figs. 40, 41, 42); royal, 64 ; 
perish without ventilation, 89 ; of bee- 
moth, see bee-moth, Larvae of; of 
honey bee, disease of, 259. 

Leidy, Dr. Joseph, his dissection of fertile 
and drone-laying queens, 34, 39, 213 
(note) ; of a queen just impregnated, 
126 (note). 

Light, bees will work when exposed to, 
16, 205, 332 ; its sudden admission, 
elfect of, on bees, 168, 169 ; of day, 
needed for operations about the hive, 
167. 

Ligurian, or Italian, bee, 318 (note). 

Linden, or bass-wood tree, yields much 
honey, 293 (and note). 

Liriodendron, yields much honey, 292. 

Locust, valuable for bees, 293. 

Lombard, his interesting anecdote of 
swarming, 308. 

Longfellow, H. W., his Indian warrior's 
description of the bee, 236. 

Loss of queen, 213-227 ; frequent, though 
the queen is usually the last to perish 
in any casualty, 213 ; when by old age, 
bees prepare for her successor, 213 ; 
occurs oftenest when queen leaves 
hive for impregnation, 213, 214 ; how 
occasioned, by queens mistaking their 
hives, 214, 215 ; bees, like hens in this 
respect, 215 ; Judge Fishback's pre- 
ventive of, 216 ; author's preventive, 
217 ; effect of, on stocks, 217 ; some- 



402 



INDEX. 



times not discovered by bees tor some 
time, 218 (and note) ; excitement in 
hive when discovered, 218 ; will not 
cause bees to abandon the hive if 
the}' - are supplied with brood-comb, 
218 ; nucleus system will remedy it, 
219 ; indications of, 219 ; the most 
common cause of destruction of stocks 
by bee-moth, 219. 
Lunenburg, number of colonies of bees 
in, 302 ; bees of, more than pay all the 
taxes, 302. 



Mahan, P. J., on causing bees to adhere 
to new locations, 163 (note) ; interest- 
ing observations of, 219 (note) ; his 
discovery that drones leave their 
hives with honey and return without 
any, 224; on the odor of the queen, 
226 (note 2). 

Maple-tree a source of honey, 292. 

Maraldi, anecdote from, of bees and a 
snail, 78. 

Materials for hives, 331. 

Meal, a substitute for pollen, 84, 219. 

Medicine, poison of bee, used for, 315 
(note) . 

Mice, ravages of, and protection against, 
252. 

Miller, see Bee-moth. 

Mills, John, on marking hives with dif- 
ferent colors, 216 (note). 

Mixing of bees, of different colonies, 203 ; 
precautions concerning, 203. 

Months of the year, direction for treating 
bees in, 362-369. 

Moonlight, bees sometimes gather honey 
by, 73 (note). 

More, Sir J., on the sovereign virtues of 
honey, 287 (note). 

Moth, see Bee-moth. 

Moth, death-head, 240 (note). 

Moth, large honey-eating, from Ohio, 241 
(note) . 

Mothers, unkind treatment of, reproved 
by bees, 312. 

Mother-stock, in forced swarming, easily 
supplied with fertile queen, 182; ex- 
posed to perish without a prompt sup- 
ply of queen, and by over swarming, 
if left to supply itself, 182 ; also to be 
robbed, 182 ; advantage of supplying 
with fertile queen, 183. 

Moth-proof hives a delusion, 228, 238, 
247. 

Moths, honey-eating, ravages of, 240* 
(and note). 

Motions, in operating on hives should be 
deliberate, 170. 

Movable-comb hive, invention of 13-23 ; 
superiority to Dzierzon's, 16, 18 ; ena- 
bles each bee-keeper to observe for 



himself, 23, 164 ; admits of easy re- 
moval of old comb, 60 ; bees in it 
easily supplied with empty comb, 71 ; 
its facilities for ventilation, 94, 276 
(note 1) ; size of, adjustable to the 
wants of colony, 96, 329 ; facilities of, 
for securing surplus honey, 100, 289, 
329 ; advantages of, for preventing 
after-swarming, 124, 140 ; enables one 
person to superintend various colo- 
nies, 102, 226 ; not easily blown down, 
103 ; may be made secure against 
mice, 103, 252, and thieves, 104 ; dura- 
bility of, 104 ; cheapness and simplic- 
ity of, 105 ; some desirables it does 
not possess, 105 ; invention of, result 
of experience, 105 ; perfection dis- 
claimed for, 105 ; merits of, submitted 
to experienced bee-keepers, 108 ; de- 
sertion of, by swarms, easily prevent- 
ed, 115 ; by use of, can employ all 
good worker comb, 130; furnishes 
storage-room for non-swarming bees, 
139 ; importance of, in supplying ex- 
tra queens, 141 , 188 ; easily cleared of 
the bee-moth, 246 ; best for non- 
swarming plan, 3 53 ; enables the api- 
arian to learn the laws regulating the 
internal economy of bees, 164 ; ena- 
bles artificial swarming to be quickly 
performed, 164 ; advantages of mov. 
able top of, 168 '; affords facilities for 
supply of fertile queens to mother 
stocks, in forced swarming, 182, 192 ; 
danger of being stung, diminished by 
use of, 209 ; the greatest obstacle to 
its speedy introduction, 209 ; the au- 
thor sanguine of its extensive use by 
skilful bee-keepers, 211 ; should be 
thoroughly examined in Spring, 221 ; 
durable and cheap, if properly taken 
care of, 221 ; advantages of, readily 
perceived by intelligent bee-keepers, 
226 ; adaptation of, to protect stocks 
from the moth, 249 ; enables the apia- 
rian to know the amount of honey 
stocks contain, 275 (note) ; how pre- 
pared for transporting bees, 281 ; to 
transfer into, from common hive, 283 ; 
designed to economize the labor of 
bees, 305 ; experiments concerning the 
size of, 330 (note 3) ; suggestions as to 
makiug, 332 ; olserving, 332 ; how to 
get honey in centre of, for Winter, 336;, 
how to make "Winter passages in combs 
of, 337 (and note 1) ; how to ventilate, 
in Winter, 338 ; bills of stock, for mak- 
ing, 371. 

Movable entrance blocks, see Blocks, 
entrance regulating. 

Movable bottom-boards, dangerous, 231. 

Movable stands for hives, 279. 

Moving stocks, 281. 

Munn, W. A., his "bar and frame 
hive," 209 (note). 

Musk, used to stop robbing, 265 (note). 



IKDEX. 



403 



N. 



Narcotics, in managing bees, worse than 
useless, 211. 

Natural swarming and hiving of swarms, 
109-142 ; guards against extinction of 
bees, 109 ; not unnatural, 111 ; time 
of, 111 ; seldom occurs in northern 
climates, when hives are not well fill- 
ed with comb, 111 (note) ; signs of, 
111; only in fair weather, 112; time 
of day of, 112 ; preparation of bees 
for, 112 ; queen often lost in, 113 ; ring- 
ing of bells and tanging, useless, 113 ; 
how to stop a fugitive swarm, 11-4 ; 
after, ventilation should be regulated, 
124 ; hiving should be done in shade, 
or hive be covered, 130 ; should he 
promptly attended to after swarm 
settles, 132; process of, 133; basket 
for, 133 ;* sheet for, 133 ; how arrang- 
ed, 133 ; how to expedite, if bees are 
dilatory, 133, 134; must be repeated 
if queen not secured 134 ; small limbs 
cut with pruning shears in, 134 ; when 
swarm out of reach, how to secure, 
134 ; when in difficult places, or two 
swarms cluster together, 135 ; how to 
secure queen, 136 ; old-fashioned way, 
objectionable, 136 ; more than one 
swarm in a hive, 137 : to prevent 
swarms uniting while hiving, 138 ; 
swarms, as soon as hived, should be 
removed to their stands, 138 ; an ex- 
pedient, if no hive be ready, 139 ; sug- 
gestions "for making more profitable, 
139-142 ; excessive, prevented by use 
of mov. comb hive, 140 ; affords no fa- 
cilities for strengthening late and fee- 
ble stocks, 140 ; objections to, 139^147 ; 
uncertainty of, 147 ; why some stocks 
refuse to swarm, 147. 

u Xew England Farmer," extract from, 
describing a combat of queens, 205. 

Night- work, on bees, hazardous, 167. 

Non-swarmer, author's, prevents swarm- 
ing, 174 ; excludes drones, 228 ; facili- 
ties it offers to preserve pure the Ital- 
ian bee, 326 ; wood-cut of, PI. II., 
Fig. 5. 

Non-swarming colonies, may lose their 
queens, or queens become unfertile, in 
common hive, 153 ; queens may be 
supplied to, in mov. comb hive, 153. 

Non-swarming hive, advocated by many, 
154 ; objections to, 153 ; mov. comb 
hive best for, 153. 

Nuclei, what they are, and how to form 
them, 189 ; to obtain adhering bees 
for , 192 (and note) • must not be allow- 
ed to get too much reduced, 197 ; al- 
ways furnish plenty of queens, 219. 

Nutt, his list of bee flowers, 298. 

Nymph, bee, see Tupa. 



O. 



Objections to natural swarming, 143-147. 

Observing-hive, mov. comb, 332-334 ; 
Hon. S. Brown's experiment with, 205 ; 
its facilities for observing the internal 
operations of the bees, 332 ; for winter- 
ing, 332 (note) ; those with single 
frames recommended, 333 ; adapted 
for the parlor, 333 ; how to stock with 
bees, 333 ; source of pleasure and in 
struction, 333 ; mav be kept in cities, 
333. 

Odor, of Queens, 226, 266 ; of drones, 226 
(note 1) ; of workers, 203. 

Odors, unpleasant, offensive to bees, 313 ; 
used to prevent robberies, 265 (note) ; 
excite bees to anger, 313. 

Oettl, remarks of, on over-stocking, 303 ; 
his golden rule in bee-keeping, 303 ; 
his statistics of bee culture, 303. 

Old age, signs of in bees, 59. 

Oliver, H. K., observations of, on bee- 
moth, 251. 

Onions, blossoms of, yield much honey, 
293. 

Ovaries of queen-bee, 35, (PL XVIIL); of 
workers, are undeveloped, 29, 54. 

Over-stocking, 299-307 ; no danger of. 
299 ; Wagner's letter on, 300 ; Oettl 
and Br aim's statistics on, 303. 

Ovum, what necessary to impregnate 
it, 41. 



P. 

Paint, smell of fresh, detested by bees, 
129 ; if fresh be used, it should contain 
no white lead, and be made to dry 
quickly, 129 ; recipe for, preferable to 
oil paint, 129 ; color of, for hives, 368. 

Pasturage for bees, 292 ; effect of, on re- 
moval of colonies. 157 ; honey-yielding 
trees and plants, 292-239 ; gardens too 
limited for, 297; catalogue of bee 
plants, 298 ; range of, 305. 

Patent hives, deceptions in vending, 61 
(note), 108,146 (note) ; have greatly 
multiplied the bee-moth, 237 ; and done 
more harm than good, 237, 241. 

Peach-tree, yields honey, 292. 

Pear-tree yields honey, 292. 

Peppermint, use of in uniting colonies, 
203. 

Perfection, folly of claiming for hives, 106. 

Perfumes, disagreeable to bees, 313 
(note). 

Perseverance of bees, worthy of imita- 
tion by man, 197. 

Persons attacked by bees, directions for, 
312, 314. 

Peters. Randolph, interesting experiment 
of, 219 (note). 

Pillage of hives, secret, cause and remedy 
of, 266. 



404 



INDEX. 



Piping of queens, an indication of after - 
swarming, 121. 

Plantain, a remedy for bee-stings, 315. 

Plum-tree, a source of honey, 292. 

Poison of bees, smell of, strong and irri- 
tating to bees, 314 ; effect of, on the 
eye, 314 (note) ; remedies for, 314- 
317 ; effect of, when taken into the 
mouth, 315 ; cold water the best rem- 
edy for, 315; a homoeopathic remedy, 
315 (note) ; the human system can be 
inured to, 316 (note). 

Poisonous honey, and how to remove its 
injurious qualities, 287. 

Pollen, or bee-bread, 80-87 ; found in 
stomachs of wax-makers, 80 ; may aid 
in secretion of wax, 80 ; whence ob- 
tained, 80 ; food of immature bees, as 
shown by Huber's experiments, 80 ; 
author's, to the same effect, 81 ; Gun- 
delach's opinion of, 81 ; useful in se- 
cretion of wax, 82 ; bees prefer fresh 
to old,-82 ; in mov. comb hives, excess 
of, in old stocks, can be given to others, 

82 ; how gathered and stored by bees, 

83 ; bees gathering, aid in impregnating 
plants, 83 ; bees collect, ouly from one 
kind of flower at a time, 83 ; wheat and 
rye meal a substitute for, 84 ; neces- 
sary for the production of wax and jelly , 
197 ; the gathering of, by bees, indi- 
cates a fertile queen in the hive, 219 
(and note). 

Pollen -basket, on leg of bee, 56. 

Poppy, white, a remedy for bee-stings, 
315. 

Posel, discovery of, on use of sperma- 
theca, 36 (note). 

Proboscis of a worker, 56 ; wood-cuts of, 
Plates Xm., XVI., Figs. 63, 51. 

Profits of bee-keeping, Dzierzon's expe- 
rience in, 2J ; Sydserff's calculation of, 
146 (note) ; dependenkon strong stocks, 
176 ; difficulty of estimating, 306 
(note) ; safe estimate of, 306. 

Propolis, 76-80; whence obtained, 76; 
curious sources of, in Mexico, 77 ; its 
uses, 77 ; bee-moth lays her eggs in, 
78 ; curious anecdotes, illustrating its 
uses, 78. 

Prussia, bee-keeping encouraged by gov- 
ernment of, 320 (note). 

Pupa, or bee-nymph, 45 ; heat required 
for its development, 46. 

Punk, smoke of, subdues bees, 27, 154. 

Q. 

Queen-bee, wood-cut of (natural and 
magnified size), PI. XII., Figs. 31, 32 ; 
wood-cut of ovaries and spermatheca 
of, 35, PI. XVHI. ; description of, 30 ; 
the mother of the whole colony, 30 ; 
affectionate treatment of, by the other 
bees, 31 ; effect of her loss on the 
colony, 31 ; her fertility, 32; how her 



eggs are fecundated, 34-41; Huber 
discovers impregnation of, to take 
place out of hive, 34; dissection of, by 
Dr. Leidy, 34, 126 (note), 213 (note); 
effect of retarded impregnation on, 
36 ; she determines the sex of the egg } 
38 ; Dr. Leidy 's dissection of a drone- 
laying, 38, 126 (note), 213 (note); at- 
tempt of bees to rear, from a drone- 
egg, 39 ; account of a drone laying, 
afterwards laying worker eggs, 40 ; 
a drone laying, with shrivelled wings, 
40; Italian, impregnated by common 
drones, produce Italian drones, while 
the females are a cross, 41, 324 (note 
2); becomes incapable of impregna- 
tion, 42 ; process of laying, 43 ; devel- 
opment of, in pupa state, 46; enmity 
of, to each other, 46, 120, 205-207; can 
regulate development of eggs in her 
ovaries, 47; disposition by, of super- 
numerary eggs, 48; fortuity of, de- 
creases with age, 49, 223 ; longevity 
of, 49,58; when superannuated, lays 
only drone-eggs, 49; why impreg- 
nated in the air, 53; office of, no sine- 
cure, 58 ; Italian, use of, to show how 
long workers live, 59 ; manner of rear- 
ing, 62 ; larva) of, effects of royal jelly 
on, 63 ; process of rearing in special 
emergency, 66 ; development of, an 
argument against infidelity, 68 ; old, 
leads first swarm, 111 ; often lost in 
swarming, 112 ; loss of, in swarming, 
causes bees to return to parent stock, 
113 ; how to prevent, from deserting 
new hive, 115 ; influence of, in causing 
bees to cluster, 117 ; prevented by 
bees from killing inmates of royal 
cells, 121 ; piping of, 121 ; several 
sometimes accompany after-swarms, 
122 ; emerges from her cell mature, 
122 ; young more active on wing than 
old, 123 ; young often reluctant to 
leave hive, 123 ; young, does not 
leave for impregnation till established 
as sole head, 51, 125 ; her precautions 
to regain her hive, 125 ; never molest- 
ed by drones in hive, 127 (note) ; 
begins laying two days after impreg- 
nation, 128 ; lays mostly worker-eggs 
the first year, 128; never stings, ex- 
cept in combat with other queens, 
136,204 ; alacrity of, in entering hive 
for new swarm, 136 ; young, often lost 
after swarming, 141 ; her loss easily 
remedied by mov. comb hive, 141 ; 
unfertile, difficult to remove in com- 
mon hives, 141 ; when immature, bees 
do not build worker-comb, 149 ; sel- 
dom enters side-apartments, 152 ; 
signs indicating her presence or ab- 
sence in forced swarms, 158 ; supply 
of sealed, for forced swarming, how to 
secure, 166 ; how to cut sealed ones 
from comb, 166 ; fertile, deprived of 



INDEX. 



405 



wings to prevent swarming, 173 ; may- 
be confined to prevent swarming, 

174 ; unfertile, should not be confined, 

175 ; fertile, easily supplied to desti- 
tute mother stocks, IS 2 ; young, in 
after-swarms, lay few drone-eggs, 184 
(note) ; to raise, for artificial-swarm- 
ing, 188^ when to be given to newly- 
forced swarms, 1S9 ; to indue 

raise, on what part of the comb you 
please, 191 ; her value, 19:2 (note) ; 
can she be developed from any 
worker-larvae? 192 (note 2) ; made to 
supply several stocks with eggs, 193 ; 
will lay eggs while under inspection, 
196 (note); caution needed in giving, 
to strange stocks, 200 ; stranger, how 
to induce stocks to receive, 201 ; pro- 
tected by queen-cage, '201 ; care to be 
used in catching, 202 ; never stings, 
but sometimes bites, 202, 204 ; may 
be lost if allowed to fly, 202 ; her great 
appetite, 202 ; her life indispensable to 
the safety of the colony, 204 ; loss of, 
sec " Loss of Queen;'' young, dangers 
besetting, 213 ; should be given to 
queenless stocks in Spring, 221 ; when 
unimpregnated, colony should be 
watched, 222 ; when unimpregnated, 
hides, 222 ; wings of, may be clipped 
for artificial swarming, 222 ; how to 
mark the age of, 223; fertility of, dimin- 
ished by hunger and cold , 223 (note 
1) ; should be removed in their third 
year, and new one given, 223 ; regular 
and systematic, best, 223 (note 2); 
odor of, 226 ; removal of, a remedy 
for foul-brood, 258 ; surplus, reared by 
Dzierzon, in suspected hives, 200 ; de- 
serted by her subjects when they have 
been conquered by stronger stocks, 
263 (and note) ; should be removed 
before smothering the bees, when 
stocks are broken up for their honey, 
306 (note); Italian, how to propagate, 
326; after being chilled, lay only drone- 
eggs, 327. 

Queen Bees, why, when two fight, both 
are not killed, 205 ; combat of, as wit- 
nessed in one of author's observing 
hives, 205 

Queen-cage, use and construction of, 201, 
325. 

Queen cells, see Royal cells. 

Imeenless stocks, signs of, 219, 245 ; to 
be supplied with queens, 221 ; in Oc- 
tober, should be united with other 
stocks, 223 ; a sure prey to the moth, 
if not protected in time, 244 (and note). 

Quinby, M., author of a very valuable 
work on bee-keeping, 249 (note) ; on 
the ravages of the larvae of bee-moth, 
249 (note) ; on shape of mov. comb 
hives, 330 (note 3); on wintering bees, 
348 ; on equalizing colonies when re- 
moved from Winter repository, 361 



(note 2); on making bees work in a 
double tier of surplus honey-boxes, 
365 (note). 

R. 

Radlkofer, Doctor, on over-stocking, 300 ; 

on the Italian bee, 325. 
Rapping on hives, its effect on bees, 27, 
155, 204. 

Raspberry, one of the best bee-plants, 
and very abundant in hill towns of 
New England, 290. 

Reaumur, his account of a snail covered 
with propolis, by bees, 78 ; his error 
as to the treatment of strange queens 
by bees, 201 ; thought there were two 
species of bee-motb, 228. 

Reid, Dr., on the shape of honey -cells, 75. 

Religion, revealed, appeal to those who 
reject, 52. 

Remedies for bee-stings, 314-317. 

Riem, the first to notice fertile workers, 
55. 

Ringing bells, in swarming time, useless, 
113. 

Requisites of a complete hive, 95-108. 

Robbers, highway, bees sometimes act 
the part of, 262. 

Robbing, by bees, frequent, when forage 
is scarce, and caution against, 199,201, 
203 ; how prevented, 261-266; commit- 
ted chiefly on feeble or queenless colo- 
nies, 261 ; signs indicating a bee en- 
gaged in, 201, 265 ; begets a disrelish 
for honest pursuits, 262, 264 (and 
note) ; movable entrance blocks pro- 
tect bees against, 264 ; infatuation pro- 
duced by, on bees, 264; caution needed 
in checking, when a hive is vigorously 
attacked, 265 ; how to stop bees en- 
gaged in, 265 ; secret, its remedy, 266. 

Royal cells, described, 62 ; wood-cuts of. 
Plates XIII. , XTV. , and XV.; attention 
paid to, by workers, 62; why they 
open downwards, 63 ; number of, in a 
hive, 63 ; how supplied with eggs, 63 ; 
description of, 66 ; when built, 111 ; 
queen prevented from destroying, 121 ; 
remains of, indicate number of queens 
hatched, 121 ; may be removed in 
mov. comb hives, to prevent after 
swarming, 124 ; how to decide whether 
inmate of has been hatched or killed, 
121; how to cut out of combs, 166; 
sign that the queens in, are nearly 
mature, 167 ; how to make bees rear, 
in convenient places on the comb, 191; 
to be given to colonies second day 
after removal of queen, 223. 

Royal jelly, see Jelly, royal. 

Rye-meal, see meal. 

S. 
Sagacity of bees, 47, 48. 



406 



INDEX. 



Salt, fondness of bees for, 272. 

Scent, see smell and odor. 

Schirach, on artificial rearing of queens, 
148. 

Scouts sent out by swarms to find a new 
borne, 117 ; necessity of, 118. 

Scraper for cleaning the bottom-board 
of mov. comb hive, 347. 

Scudamore, Dr., on many swarms clus- 
tering together, 137. 

Secret recipe for keeping stocks strong, 
sham vendor of, 238. 

Scholtz, Mr., on wintering bees in clamps, 
348-360. 

Sex of bees, determined by queen, 38. 

Shakspeare's description of the Hive, 

* 268. 

Shrimplin, experiment of, showing im- 
pregnation to take place in the air, 
127. 

Sick persons, the care of, beneficial to 
man, 313. 

Siebold, Professor, extracts from his 
Parthenogenesis, 126 (note) ; his dis- 
section of spermatheca, 127 (note) ; 
found spermatozoa in worker, but not 
in drone eggs, 41 ; on bee life, 144 
(note); recommends movable frames, 
321 (not 2). 

Sight of bees, acute, for distant objects, 
117. 

Signs of swarming, 111 ; of queenless 
colonies, 219, 224; of presence of moths 
in hive, 242. 

Size of hives, 329-332. 

Smell, of hives, in gathering season, 177 
(note); strange bees distinguished by, 
203 ; the same, to be given in uniting 
colonies, 203 ; sense of, in bees, acute, 
313 ; of their own poison, irritates bees, 
314. 

Smoke, importance of, in subduing bees, 
27, 154 ; its use in forced swarming, 
165, 168, 169 ; its use of, very ancient, 
210 ; drives clustered bees inside of 
hive, 281 ; useful in removing surplus 
honey, 289. 

Smothering bees, cautions for prevent- 
ing, 281. 

Snails, sometimes covered by bees with 
propolis, 78. 

Snow, bees perish on, when carrying out 
their dead, 98 ; sometimes fatal to 
bees, 338 (note 1); often harmless to 
bees, 361 (note 1). 

Solidago, see Golden Rod. 

Sontag, F. , on meal as a substitute for 
pollen, 84. 

Spare honey, see Honey, surplus. 

Spermatheca, of the queen bee, wood- 
cut aud description of, 35 ; PI. XVIII. , 
Fig. 55 ; dissection of, 34, 126 (note), 
213 (note). 

Spermatozoa, found in spermatheca of 
queen-bee, 34, 126 (note). 

Sphinx Atropos, see Moth, Death-head. 



Spinola. described the Italian bee, 318 
(note). 

Spring, importance of sun-heat in, to 
hives, 101 ; feeble stocks, in, unprofit- 
able, 177 ; examination of bees, in, im- 
portant, 221 ; colonies should be fed, 
in, 267, 268. 

Sprinkling bees, should not be done to 
excess, 170 ; cools their robbing fren 
zy, 203. 

Starving of bees, often happens when 
there is honey in the hive, 336, 342. 

Sting, Bevan's description of, 56 ; PI. 
XVII. , Fig. 53 ; microscopic appear- 
ance of, 57 ; loss of, fatal to bees, 57 ; 

. loss of, in stinging, a benefit to man, 
58 ; of queen, 65 ; wood-cut of queen's, 
PI. XVITI. 

Sting, poison of, dangerous to some, 313 ; 
remedies for, 314-317 ; smell of poison 
of, irritating to bees, 314 ; instant ex- 
traction of, important, 314 ; rubbing 
the wound made by, should be avoid- 
ed, 314; Mr. Wagner's remedy for, 315; 
different remedies answer for different 
persons, 315 ; human system may be 
inured to, 316 (note); amusing remedy 
for, 316 (note). 

Stinging, bees when gorged, disinclined 
to, 25, 169, 308 ; little risk of, unless 
bees are irritated, 28, 168, 170 ; risk of, 
diminished by use of mov. comb hive, 
209 ; diseased bees inclined to, 310 ; 
risk of, not increased by proximity to 
the hive, 211 (note) ; not to be feared 
from a bee away from its hive, 312 ; 
effect of, sometimes dangerous, 312 ; 
Italian bee less inclined to, than com- 
mon bee, 322, 324. 

Stocks , of bees (see also colonies of bees) , 
enfeebled by " in-and-in breeding," 
54 ; strong, will rapidly fill empty 
comb, 71 ; often lose young queens 
after swarming, 141 ; fewer in this 
country than there were years ago, 
145 ; often refuse to swarm, 139, 145 ; 
147 ; new, work better than old, 153 ; 
if weak in Spring, usually unprofitable, 
and sometimes require to be fed, 177 ; 
the less disturbed, the better for sur- 
plus honey, 180 ; best mode for rapid 
increase of, 184 ; doubling, trebling, 
&C, 185 ; subject to great loss of bees 
in storms, 186 ; rapid increase of, hope- 
less in vicinity of sugar-houses, &c, 

199 ; hostility of, to strange queens, 

200 ; when united, the bees should be 
gorged with honey, 204 ; will adhere to 
the hive when the queen is lost, if sup- 
plied with brood-comb, 218 ; queenless, 
should be broken up, if not supplied 
with a queen or brood-comb, 218 ; 
Spring-care of, 221 ; healthy, destroy 
the drones when forage is scarce, 224 ; 
weak, with uncovered comb, infested 
by moths, 242 ; suffering from hunger 



INDEX. 



407 



are an easy prey to the moth, 246 (and 

note) . 
Stocks, union of, see Union of colonies. 
Stomach of worker, wood-cut of, PI. 

XVII., Fig. 54. 

Stoves, air-tight, deficient in ventilation, 
92; Franklin, a good kind of, 92 (note). 

Straw, use of, for protecting hives, 387. 

Stupefaction of bees, by smoke, chloro- 
form, and ether, 210. 

Sturtevant, E. T. , on wintering bees, 340. 

Suffocation of bees, symptoms, 90. 
ments 70. 

Sugar-candy, see Candy 

Sugar- water, use of to pacify bees, 26 ; 
154, 168-170 ; how to apply it, 170 ; 
used in mingling stocks, 203. 

Sulphur, use of, in killing eggs and worms 
of bee moth, 243. 

Sun, heat of, important to bees in Spring, 
101,368. 

Superstitions about bees, 79. 

Surplus honey, see Honey, surplus. 

Swallow, address of Grecian poet, to a 
bee-eating, 253. 

Swammerdam, his drawing of queen's 
ovaries described, 35 ; great merits of, 
as an observer, 65 (note).; his drawing 
of queen's ovaries, PI. XVIII. ; how 
he learned the internal economy of the 
hive, and his reverence in studying 
the works of Nature, 164 (note) ; spoke 
of two species of bee-moth, 228. 

Swarms, new, often construct drone- 
comb to store hone} 7 , 51 ; number of 
bees in a good one, 54 ; first ones led 
by old queens, 111 ; no sure indica- 
tions at first, 111 ; will settle without 
ringing of bells, &c., 113; more in- 
clined to elope, if bees are neglected, 
114 ; how to arrest a fugitive, 114 ; 
how to prevent, from deserting a new 
hive, 115 ; indications of intended de- 
sertion, 115 ; clustering of, before de- 
parture, of special benefit to man, 116; 
send out scouts, 117 ; sometimes build 
comb of fence-rails, &c, 118 ; how 
parent hive is re-populated, after de- 
parture of, 119 ; composed of young 
and old bees, 119 ; none of the bees of 
new, return to parent hive, 120 ; signs 
and time of second, 122; sometimes 
settle in several clusters, 122 ; singular 
instance of plurality of" queens (in 
Mexico), 122; signs and time of third, 
123; first, sometimes swarms again \ 
128 ; new, reluctant, to enter 
hives, 130; often take possession of 
deserted hives stored with comb, but 
seldom of empty hives, 131 ; trees con- 
venient for clustering of, 131 ; can be 
made to alight on a selected spot, 131 ; 
hiving of, should not be delayed, 132 ; 
several, clustering together, 137 ; may 
be separated by hiving in large hive, 
137 ; hissing sound of bees while 



swarming, causes other stocks to 
swaiin, 137; how to prevent their 
mingling, 138 ; should be placed where 
Intended to stand, as soon as hived, 
138 ; how to proceed when hive is not 
ready to receive, 139 ; feeble after- 
swarms, of little value, NO, 141 ; Btroug, 
tempted to evil courses, 141 ; many, 
annually lost, 143 ; danger of losing, in 
swarming season, 144; decrease of 
in bees, alter swarming, 151 (and 
note) ; new, have; greater energy than 
old, 153 ; forced, 154; will enter hives 
without the queen, 159 (note); when 
forced, how to induce to adhere to 
new locations, 163 (and note) ; to 
avoid risk of losing, in swarming-time, 
173 ; too rapid multiplication of, un- 
profitable, 176; second, usually val- 
ueless, unless early, and season good ; 
177 ; weak, may be strengthened by 
use of mow comb hive, 178 ; one new, 
made from two old ones, 181 (note 3) ; 
artificial, rapid increase of with mov. 
comb hive, 183 ; dangers attending, 
in large apiaries where the hives are 
uniform in appearance, and near to- 
gether, 216 ; how to avoid the danger, 
217 ; Washington Irving's account of, 
in the West, 236 (note) ; new, need 
more air than old, 281 ; precautions in 
moving, 281 ; a late one, 306. 

Swarming, signs of, 111 ; indisposes bees 
to return to parent hive, 120 ; unsea- 
sonable, often caused by famine, 116 ; 
causes bees to mark the place of their 
new abode, 120; incident in, in Mex- 
ico, 123 ; after, care needed to pre- 
serve young brood in parent hive, 
124; in tropical climates, at all sea- 
sons, 128 ; season of, 128 ; inconve- 
niences of, 139-147 ; artificial, mode 
of for common hives, 154 ; best pre- 
vented by use of authors hive, 153; 
for the season, can be accomplished 
in few days with author's hive, 173 ; 
time of natural, easily determined in 
author's hive, 173 (note) ; prevented by 
clipping wings of queen, 173, 223 ; pre- 
vented by contracting the entrance 
Of hive, 174 ; last plan not thoroughly 
tested, 174 (note 3) ; frequent, unpro- 
fitable, 170 ; best mode of -artificial, 
181; how to obtain extra queens in na- 
tural. 190 (note); interesting anecdote 
of, 308. 

Swarming, artificial, see Artificial 
Swarming. 

Swarming, natural, see Natural Swarm- 
ing. 

Swarming season, commencement and 
duration of, 111, 128, 

Sweaty horses, detested and often killed 
by bees, 313 

SydserfTs calculation of profits of bee 
culture, 146 (note). 



408 



INDEX. 



Table, illustrating the increase of stocks 
by artificial swarming, 185; of form- 
ing nuclei, 191. 

" Taking up bees," facilitated by mov. 
comb hive, 209 ; suggestions as to 
time of, 306 (note). 

Temperature of hive, rises at time of 
swarming, 130. 

Theories often fail, when put to a prac- 
tical test, 175 (note). 

Thistle, Canada, a 'good bee-plant, 
296. 

Thompson, poetical extract from, upon 
killing bees, 239 ; on bees in linden 
trees, 293. 

Thorley, John, first stupefied bees by 
puff-ball smoke, 210. 

Tidd, M. M., his experiment on a female 
moth, 230 (note 2) ; notices the differ- 
ence between tongue of the male and 
female moth, 230. 

Time of bees, economized in mov. comb 
hive, 95, 96 ; importance of saving, 
305. 

Timid persons may safely remove sur- 
plus honey, 289-291 ; should use bee- 
dress while hiving bees, 132,154; often 
stung while other persons seldom are, 
168 ; some should not attempt to rear 
bees, 209. 

Toad, eats bees, 254. 

Tobacco, should not be used for subdu- 
ing bees, 169. 

Top-boxes, for surplus" honey, should be 
used with caution, 330 (note). 

Transferring bees from common to mov. 
comb hive, 282-284 ; mode of, 282 ; 
best time for, 283 ; results of, 284. 

Transportation of bees, easy in mov. 
comb hive, 281. 

Traps for moths, usually worthless, 
244. 

Trees, combs built on, by bees, 118 ; 
apiaries should be near, 131 ; substi- 
tute for, 131; limbs of, need not be cut, 
in hiving bees, 133 ; shade of, agree- 
able to bees, 280 ; honey-producing 
292. 

Tulip (poplar, or white wood) , tree yields 
great quantities of honey, 292. 

U. 

Union of colonies, facilitated by giving 

them the same smell, 203 ; mode of, 

203, 204 ; for wintering, 336. 
Unbelief in revelation not prompted by 

true philosophy, 52. 
Uncleanly persons disagreeable to bees, 

313. 



Varnish, used by bees in place of propo- 
lis 80. 



Varro, his remark, that bees in large 
hives become dispirited, 208. 

Ventilation, furnished to larvae by shape 
of cells, 75 ; of the hive, 88-94 ; pro- 
duced by the fanning of bees, 88 ; 
Huber on, 88 ; its necessity, 89 ; re- 
marks on, in human dwellings. 91; 
provided for and easily controlled in 
mov. comb hive, 93, 94; artificial, 
must be simple to be useful, 93 ; 
should he attended to, after swarming, 
124 ; ample, should be given, while 
bees are storing honey, 288, 366 ; how 
to give, in Winter, 338; upward, needed 
in Winter, 338, 340 (note), 241, 360. 

Vice, effect of, on man, compared to ra- 
vages of the moth, 235. 

Virgil, described the Italian bee, 318. 

W. 

Wagner, Samuel, letter of, on mov. comb 
hive, 17-18 ; theory of, on how queen 
determines sex of egg, 38 ; his account 
of bees building comb on a tree, 118 ; 
on the effect of soil on the quality 
of honey -yielding plants, 294 (note) ; 
on the Swedish white clover, for bees 
and stock, 295 ; letter of, on over- 
stocking, 300 ; letter of, on the Italian 
. bee, 317 ; extracts from, on preserving 
the purity of the Italian bee, 323 
(notes) ; states a remarkable fact con 
cerniug hybrid bees, 324 (note 2) ; at 
tempt of, to import Italian bee, 328 
(note) ; translation of Scholtz on win- 
tering bees, 348-3C0. 

War, how waged by different colonies, 
263. 

Wasps, fecundation of, 35 ; injure fruit, 
•86 ; should be destroyed in Spring, 87; 
torpid in Winter, 109. 

Water, necessary to be supplied for bees 
confined, 189 (and note) ; the refusal 
of, in Spring, by bees, indicative of a 
queenless colony, 2L9 (and note); cold, 
useful in checking robbery, 265 ; in- 
dispensable to bees when building 
comb, or rearing brood, 271, 342-346 ; 
bees need, in cold weather, 342-346 ; 
advantages of giving, to bees in cold 
Springs, 343 

Wax, scales of, wood-cuts, PL XIII., Figs. 
37 and 38 ; secreted from honey, 69, 
275 ; pouches for, 69 ; wood -cut of, li. 
XIII., Fig. 38; Huber's experiments 
on secretion of, 69 ; pollen may aid its 
secretion, 70 ; its elements, 71 ; large 
quantity of honey consumed in secre- 
tion of , 71 ; shavings of, used by bees, 
to build new comb, 72 ; a bad con- 
ductor of heat, 73 ; pollen useful in its 
secretion, 82, 197 ; origin of, discovered 
by Hornbostel, 204 (note); the food of 
the larvre of the bee-moth, 233, 247: 
how to render, from comb, 288. 



INDEX. 



409 



Weather, unpleasant, delays of prevents 
swarming, 112. 

West India honey, as boe-food, 256 
(note), *270. 

WDtherell, Dr. C. M*, his analysis of 
royal jelly, 64. 

Wheaton, Levi, on upward ventilation, 
276 (note 1); on wintering bees, 346 
(note 1). 

White clover, see Clover, white. 

Weigel, Rev. Mr., first recommended 
candy, as bee-feed, 272. 

Wheeler, George, on aucient bar-hives, 
210 (note). 

Willow, varieties of, abound in honey 
and pollen, 292. 

Wildmau, Thomas, feats of, in handling 
bees, 308 ; states the fact that fear 
disposes colonies to unite, 203 (note); 
his approach to modern modes of 
taming bees, 204 (note) ; on the queen's 
odor, 226. 

Winds, bees should bo protected against, 
103, 186, 279. 

Wings of queens, may be made to mark 
their age, 223. 

Winter, wasps and hornets, but not 
bees, torpid in, 109, 335 ; quantity of 
honey needed by a stock in, 274 ; 
bees "eat less in, when kept quiet, 335, 
355, 358 ; bees should be protected 
from winds of, 337 ; bees in, if out of 
doors, should be allowed to fly, 337 ; 
how to ventilate hives in, 338 ; snow 
in, when injurious to bees, 338 (note 
1); bees need water in, 342-346; when 
honey is candied in, bees need water, 
342-344 ; disturbing bees in, injurious, 
347, 355 ; fewer bees die in, when 
hives are in clamps, than when in 
other special depositories, 358 ; tem- 
porary removal of colonies in, to a 
warm room, 341, 362. 

Wintering bees,3->5-36l; objections to, in 
the open air, 335 ; how to get honey 
for, in centre of hive, 336 ; bee pas- 
sages in comb for, 337 (and note I), 
339 (and note) ; in a dry vault or cel- 



lar, 348 ; in special rojvsitorics, 348- 
360; further experiments in, needed, 
360 ; requires caution in removing 
them from winter quarters, 361. 

Wives, a friendly word to, 220. 

Wood-cuts, explanation of, 11, 371. 

Women, American, suffer from bad ven- 
tilation, 92. 

Worker-comb, size of the cells of, 74 ; all 
good, can be used in mow comb hive, 
130 ; not built unless bees have a 
mature queen, 149. 

Worker-bees, arc females, with undcvcl- 
loped ovaries, 29 ; when fertile, their 
progeny always drones, 36 ; Hul er's 
theory concerning fertile, 37, 55; some- 
times exalted to be queens, 37 ; one 
raised from a drone egg, by Dr. Fou- 
hoff, 41 : incapable of impregnation, 
42 ; wood-cuts of, PI. XII., Figs. 35, 36 ; 
number of, in swarm, 54; author's 
opinion respecting fertile, f 5 ; fertile 
prefer to lay in drone cells, 55; honey- 
bag, 56; representation of, PI. XVII., 
Fig. 54, A.; use of proboscis of, 56; 
wood-cut of proboscis of, IT. XVI., 
Fig. 51 ; poileu basket, 56 ; sting, 56 ; 
wood-cut of, PI. XVII., Fig. 53 ; loss of 
sting, fatal, 57 ; do all the work of the 
hive, 58 ; their age, 58 ; lesson of in- 
dustry from, 59; attention to royal 
cells, 62 ; wood-cut of abdomen of, PL. 
XVI., Fig. 52 ; two kinds of, described 
by Huber, 192 (note 2) ; differently 
occupied in different periods of life, 
194 ; impulse of, to gather honey, un- 
developed in early life, 195. 

Worms, see Bee-moth, larvae of, 

Wormwood, use of, for driving away 
robbing bees, 265 (note). 

Wurtemberg, number of its colonies of 
bees, 304. 



Zollickoffer, H. M., his account of bees 
buildingxombs on a tree, 118. 



ADVERTISEMENT. 



An individual or farm right, to make and use the Movable- 
Comb Hive, will be sold for five dollars. Such a right entitles the 
owner, in the territory where it is purchased, to make for his own 
use, and not otherwise, any number of hives. 

Ministers of the Gospel, of all denominations, are entitled to 
an individual right for their own use, without any charge. 

The Inventor has secured to all purchasers of individual righta 
the privilege of using, without any further charge, any improve- 
ments which he may hereafler patent. For the information of 
the Public (see note on page 61), the following extract is given 
from the Patent Office Report of 1852-3 : 

Patent No. 9300— Improvement in Bee-Hives 

" What I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is — 

11 First — The use of a shallow chamber, substantially as described, in combina* 
tion with a perforated cover, for enlarging or diminishing at will the size and num* 
ber of the spare honey receptacles. 

" Second. — The use of the movable frames, A, A, Fig. 4, or their equivalents, sub- 
stantially as described ; also, their use in combination with the shallow chamber, 
with or without my arrangement for spare honey receptacles. 

11 Third. — A divider, substantially as described, in combination with a movable 
©over, allowing the divider to be inserted from above, between the ranges of comb. 

" Iburth.—The use of the double glass sides in a single frame, substantially aa 
and for the purposes set forth. 

" FifJi. — The construction of the trap for excluding moths and catching worms, 
go arranged as to increase or diminish at will the size of the entrance for bees, sub- 
stantially in the manner and for the purposes set forth. 

L. L. LAXGSTROTH." 

"For individual and territorial rights, in the States of Massa- 
chusetts and Rhode Island, and the Counties of Cheshire, Hills- 
boro', Rockingham, Merrimack, Sullivan and Belknap, in New 
Hampshire, address W. B. Gleason, No. 70 State Street, Boston. 

For individual and territorial rights in New Jersey, part of 
Pennsylvania, and Newcastle County, Delaware, address P. J. 
Mahan, No. 720 Chestnut Street Philadelphia, 

411 



ADVERTISEMENT. 



For individual and territorial rights in Delaware, Maryland 
Vugm.a North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, F orida A. a - 

SHVSW L ° Ui f na ' and ^^ add - Richard ^ 
N o^ , 7 East Baltimore Street, Baltimore, Maryland 

For nghts in the following Counties in Ohio, Adams, Atbem 

Belmont, Auglaize, Brown, Butler, Carroll, Champaign S 

Clermont, Clinton, Coshocton, Crawford, Dark, DeE e ft£ 

fie d, Fayette, Franklin, Galha, Greene, Guernsey, HamihX, Han 

cock, Hardm, Harnson, Highland, Hocking, Holmes, Jackson 

m5 M 10X ,V LaWrenCe ' Licki1 ^' ***", M ^ison, Ma on 
Mednia Meigs, Montgomery, Monroe, Muskingum, Per y ££ 
way, Pd,e Preble, Richiand, Ross, Scioto, Shelby, Unionf^ t 
D-Z; e :S; gt ° n ' ^ W ^ d0tt ' ^-Wd Co5 
For individual and territorial rights in the State of Kentucky 

ZinTi A ; htab ,t' Cayahoga < Gea -^ ^ ^ 

ning, lortage, Summit, and Trumbull, in Ohio address F T 

Stnrtevant & Co, Cleveland, Ohio. ' ' * 

For individual and territorial rights in the States of Maine 

CoT in A?" K CtiCUt J and tLe C0Ulltl ' eS ° f GraftoH ' C -o»> ^ 

of Ne V Tf !re ~ al£0 ' f ° r rightS in Connecticut part 

l^^;^^ - *— * addL 

For Inves and individual rights in the following Counties in 

ware ct' £T' ^^ ^"^ ^LgO C 

ware Columbia, Essex, Fulton, Greene, Herkimer, Ws Madi 

son, Montgomery, Oneida, Ontario, Oswego, Putnam, Petse a 
Rockland Saratoga, Schoharie, Seneca, Suffolk, T oga U ste ' 
^ashmgton and Westchester, address R. L. AlL & C a2 
cuHnral Impiement Makers, No. 189 Water Street, New YoTk 

N.B.-Ow„ers of territorial rights, who may wish to have 
then- names mserted in this advertisement, can ascertain te™ 
by addressmg Saxton, Barker & Co., 25 Park Row, New York 



477 



WBaBttut 

unn 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 





002 841 827 9 t 



